In 1994, the people of Oregon voted to approve Oregon Ballot Measure 16. This measure created the Oregon Death with Dignity Act (ORS 127.800-995). The Death with Dignity Act made physician-assisted suicide legal in some cases. This means that if a competent adult with a terminal illness wanted to, they could get a prescription from a doctor. They could then use that prescription to kill themselves.
The Death with Dignity Act made Oregon the first state in the United States to made physician-assisted suicide legal. The law survived many legal challenges. The Attorney General of the United States even tried to stop the law. However, in 2006, in a case called Gonzales v. Oregon, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that Oregon could continue to use the Death with Dignity Act. Over the next ten years, four more states made physician-assisted suicide legal for terminally ill people.
Some states, like Oregon, allow citizens to vote on whether a law should be created. This is called a ballot measure. In 1994, Ballot Measure 16 was added to the voting ballot (the voting ticket) in the state of Oregon. The ballot measure asked if Oregon should pass a law that "Allows Terminally Ill Adults to Obtain Prescription for Lethal Drugs." The vote was close, but most voters said yes:
| Ballot Measure 16 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Allows Terminally Ill Adults to Obtain Prescription for Lethal Drugs Date: November 8, 1994 | ||
| Results | ||
| Votes | % | |
| Yes | 627,980 | 51.31% |
| No | 596,018 | 48.69% |
Since the voters had approved the ballot measure, the Oregon Death with Dignity Act (DWDA) was created. However, the law did not go into effect until 1997. This was because a judge ordered an injunction – a judge's order blocking the law from being used. Eventually, on October 27, 1997, the injunction was removed.
In November 1997, the Oregon state legislature put another ballot measure on the voting ticket. They did this after the Supreme Court decided Washington v. Glucksberg. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled in support of laws against physician-assisted suicide. This new ballot measure asked the voters if the Death with Dignity Act should be repealed. 60% of the voters said no; they wanted the Death with Dignity Act to stay:
| Ballot Measure 51 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Should Ballot Measure 16 be Repealed? Date: November 4, 1997 | ||
| Results | ||
| Votes | % | |
| Yes | 445,830 | 40.09% |
| No | 666, 275 | 59.91% |
The Oregon Death with Dignity Act (DWDA) allows a terminally ill person to get a prescription from a doctor that they can use to end their life. (The DWDA specifically says that people who use the DWDA are not committing suicide.) However, there are many requirements. For example:
In 2001, Attorney General John Ashcroft decided to try to stop the DWDA. He threatened to use a federal anti-drug law to punish doctors who wrote prescriptions under the DWDA. He threatened to take away their prescription licenses and even charge them as criminals. The state of Oregon, joined by a doctor, a pharmacist, and terminally ill patients, sued to stop Ashcroft. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court. The Court ruled in favor of Oregon. The Death with Dignity Act could continue.
Between 1998 and the end of 2015, 1,545 people have gotten prescriptions through the Death with Dignity Act. Of these people, 991 have chosen to use the medicine to end their lives. The other 554 (36%, or almost 2 in every 5 patients) chose never to use their prescriptions.
Of the 991 people who died from taking DWDA medications:
Many of the 991 people who used their medications had the same worries about dying. The most common were:
The law says that a person has to wait at least 15 days between asking to use the DWDA and getting a prescription. However, some people waited up to 1009 days (over two and a half years} before using their prescriptions.
After the Supreme Court's decision in Gonzales v. Oregon, other states realized they could also legalize assisted suicide without getting into trouble with the federal government. Since the Death with Dignity Act was decided in 2006, four other states have made physician-assisted suicide legal: Washington, Montana, Vermont, and California.