EIGHT DIE FROM PILLS PRESCRIBED UNDER OREGON'S ASSISTED-SUICIDE LAW

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Eight people have died with help from their
doctors under the nation's only assisted-suicide law, which so far has
withstood challenges in federal courts and opposition from the Roman
Catholic Church, the American Medical Association and Congress.

The Oregon Health Division released its first official figures Tuesday
on deaths under the law, first approved by Oregon voters in 1994 and
reaffirmed by voters last November. Unknown to voters, the law went
into effect the month before after a long federal court battle.

Ten terminally ill people obtained lethal prescriptions from their
physicians under the Oregon law, but two died from their illnesses
without resorting to the drugs, said Dr. Katrina Hedberg, an
epidemiologist with the division.

"We found that two people chose not to take their medication even
though they had it," Hedberg said.

The law allows a doctor to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to
hasten the death of a terminally ill patient. It sets up several
safeguards to make sure the patient is sane, has less than six months
to live, has a terminal diagnosis and is not forced to ingest the
lethal medication. The patient must request the drugs verbally and in
writing.

The assisted-suicide law required the Health Division to set up a
reporting system for physicians and to publish an annual statistical
report, but it does not act as a regulatory agency, she said.

The state waited until it had recorded 10 deaths under the law before
announcing them as a way of protecting the privacy of patients and
their families, Hedberg said

Otherwise, "it would have been too easy to identify an individual,"
she said.

Barbara Coombs Lee, who led the Oregon campaign for the law, welcomed
the statistics, saying they showed that "dire predictions" of botched
suicides and lingering deaths have proved false.

"This report clearly shows that the fears of our opponents were
unfounded and designed to scare Oregonians," said Coombs Lee, who is
executive director of Compassion in Dying.

But a spokesman for the Catholic Church called the announcement
"tragic" and accused the nine doctors involved of killing their
patients "in violation of medical ethics."

"I'm terribly saddened," said Bob Castagna, executive director of the
Oregon Catholic Conference. "We pray for the souls of the deceased. We
also pray for the physicians and others who assisted in these suicides
that they may reconsider their professional ethics."

The leader of a group of doctors opposed to assisted suicide said the
announcement "devalues and stigmatizes everyone labeled as terminally
ill."

Dr. N. Gregory Hamilton, president of Physicians for Compassionate
Care, urged increased efforts to improve end-of-life care for patients
suffering from a terminal disease.

Castagna said the Oregon Catholic Conference would urge Congress "to
act expeditiously to pass legislation to confirm a national standard
to prohibit physician assisted suicide."

A bill introduced by U.S. Sen. Don Nickles, R-Okla., could block the
Oregon law by prohibiting doctors from prescribing "controlled
substances" -- dangerous narcotics and barbiturates regulated by the
federal government -- for the purpose of assisting suicide.

The bill, which is being considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee,
is supported by committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, but Attorney
General Janet Reno ruled in June that the federal Controlled
Substances Act did not override Oregon law.

But Barbara Oskamp of West Linn, who has been diagnosed with a brain
tumor, said she wishes the church would stop meddling with a law she
said brings her a sense of comfort and relief.

"I don't like it when religion tries to forces its viewpoint on me,"
Oskamp said. "This law has brought me a great sense of relief and a
feeling that I can control my life."

Coombs Lee noted that the average age of the 10 people who requested
lethal prescriptions was 71, and nine were dying of cancer. One
suffered from heart problems.

"All of them were older patients facing difficult deaths," Coombs Lee
said. "People are aware of the extraordinary debilitation and
deterioration awaiting them."

She said that nearly 24,000 deaths have been reported in Oregon since
the law was reaffirmed by voters last year, and the eight assisted
suicides under the law account for less than 0.03 percent of the total
deaths.

"This is an extremely small number," Coombs Lee said.

The state report said the 10 people who were given lethal
prescriptions was evenly divided between men and women, and half were
from the Portland area.

The report said the number of days between obtaining the lethal drugs
and taking them ranged from the same day to 16 days with an average of
two days. The average time of death was 40 minutes after taking the
drugs.

The two who died of their illnesses lived an average of 10.5 days
after obtaining the drugs.

In March, two people died under the state's law. A third person was
reported to have died under the law in May. And in June, a Salem
onocologist, Dr. Peter Rasmussen, said he had helped a terminally ill
patient die.

Few details of the deaths were released.

In one of the March cases, a grandmother in her mid-80s battling
breast cancer sought assistance from Compassion in Dying, an advocacy
organization. A day after she died, the group released a tape
recording the woman made before she died.

U.S. District Judge Michael Hogan in Eugene ruled the law
unconstitutional in 1995, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
overturned the decision last year and the U.S. Supreme Court refused
to hear an appeal.

Advocates of the Oregon law said in April that 42 people had requested
physician-assisted suicide since the law took effect, but that many
were not terminally ill or were not residents of Oregon.

Others later changed their minds and opted for hospice
care.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry