SUICIDE LAW PAINLESS, OREGON SAYS

SALEM, Ore. -- In the first year under the nation's only assisted-suicide
law, 15 terminally ill people in Oregon used it to end their lives, and
there was no evidence they suffered painful, lingering deaths as opponents
had warned.

In a report published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, Oregon
health officials also said that fears that the law would be used as an easy
way out by people afraid of financial ruin or extreme pain proved unfounded.

Rather, health officials found that use of the law has so far been driven
overwhelmingly by the desire of strong-willed patients to exercise some
control over the way they died.

"Many physicians reported that their patients had been decisive and
independent throughout their lives or that the decision to request a lethal
prescription was consistent with a longstanding belief about the importance
of controlling the manner in which they died," the report said.

The first report on Oregon's Death with Dignity Act showed that doctors
prescribed lethal drugs to 23 people in 1998 but that six died of their
illnesses before using the drugs. Two others still were alive as of Jan. 1.

Thirteen of the 15 who took the lethal drugs were cancer patients. The
others were suffering from heart or lung diseases. The average age of those
who took their lives was 69.

Approved in 1994 and reaffirmed by Oregon voters in November 1997, the law
allows a doctor to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to hasten the death
of patients who have less than six months to live.

The Roman Catholic Church and others spent millions of dollars to try to
derail the measure. They relied chiefly on the argument that some people
would die excruciating, torturous deaths after taking the drugs.

However, Oregon's Health Division found no evidence of botched suicides and
no complications such as vomiting or seizures from the lethal doses of
barbiturates. Nearly all of those who took the drugs were unconscious within
five minutes, and most were dead within an hour.

Despite the apparent lack of technical problems, the leader of the Portland
Roman Catholic Archdiocese denounced assisted suicide as an immoral act.

"Every time a physician writes a prescription for lethal medication, we are
confronted again with our failure to offer compassionate care," said
Archbishop John Vlazny.

"In allowing assisted suicide to continue, the State of Oregon dismisses the
value of human life. This thought fills me with sadness and shame," Vlazny
said.

Dr. Peter Rasmussen, a Salem oncologist who has assisted in two suicides,
said his patients slipped peacefully into a coma almost immediately after
eating chocolate pudding laced with barbiturates.