In Oregon, Other Suicides Have Increased with Legalization of Assisted Suicide. The Financial and Emotional Cost is "Enormous"

The cost is "enormous."

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

A pdf version can be viewed here and here.

If not rejected, Act 21-577 will legalize physician-assisted suicide in the District of Columbia. The Act is based on a similar law in Oregon, which was enacted in 1997.[1] Since then, there has been a significant increase in other (conventional) suicides in Oregon. This is consistent with a suicide contagion in which the legalization and promotion of assisted suicide has led to an increase in other suicides. A government report from Oregon, which is a smaller population state, says:

The cost of [conventional] suicide is enormous. In 201[2] alone, self-inflicted injury hospitalization charges... exceeded $54 million; and the estimate of total lifetime cost of suicide in Oregon was over $677 million.[2]

"Even if a patient struggled, who would know?"

By Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

The DC Act allows the death by lethal dose to occur in private without supervision.[1] The drugs used are water and alcohol soluble, such that they can be administered to a restrained or sleeping person without consent.[2] Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, puts it this way:

Physician-Assisted Suicide Traumatic for Family Members

By Margaret Dore, Esq.

In 2012, a European research study addressed trauma suffered by persons who witnessed legal assisted suicide in Switzerland.[1] The study found that one out of five family members or friends present at an assisted suicide was traumatized. These people,

experienced full or sub-threshold PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) related to the loss of a close person through assisted suicide.[2]

The Act Creates a New Path of Elder Abuse, Which Is Legal

By Margaret Dore, Esq, MBA

Elder abuse is already a problem in the District of Columbia. Failing to reject the Act will make a bad situation worse. See below.