The DC Act charges the Department of Health with issuing an annual statistical report based on data collected concerning people who used the Act.[1] The Act also states:
The information collected by the Department pursuant to this act shall not be a public record and may not be made available for inspection by the public under the Freedom of Information Act of 1976, effective March 25, 1977 (D.C. Law 1-96; D.C. Official Code § 2-2-531 et seq.), or any other law. (Emphasis added).[2]Oregon’s law has a similar provision, as follows:
Except as otherwise required by law, the information collected shall not be a public record and may not be made available for inspection by the public. (Emphasis added).[3]In Oregon, this similar provision is interpreted to bar release of information about individual cases, including to law enforcement.
Oregon’s website states
The Act specifically states that information collected is not a public record and is not available for inspection by the public (ORS 127.865 (2)). The protection of confidentiality conferred by the Death with Dignity Act precludes the Oregon Health Authority [which oversees Oregon’s Department of Health] from releasing information that identifies patients or participants . . . .
[C]ase-by-case information will not be provided . . . . (Emphasis added) [4]Consider also this e-mail from Alicia Parkman, Mortality Research Analyst for the Oregon Health Authority, which states:
We have been contacted by law enforcement . . . in the past, but have not provided identifying information of any type. [5]If the District of Columbia follows Oregon’s interpretation of "public record," there will be a similar lack of transparency in which even law enforcement will have no access to information about individual cases.
Footnotes:
[1] The Act, §§ 8 (a) & (b).
[2] Id, § 17.
[3] ORS 127.865 s.3.11, available at page A-81 of this link.
[4] Oregon Data Release Policy, available at page A-70 of this link.
[5] E-mail from Alicia Parkman to Margaret Dore, January 4, 2012, available at page A-63 of this link.
