Public Opinion About Life and Death - Oregon Physician-assisted Suicide Law

In 1994 Oregon became the first jurisdiction in the world to legalize physician-assisted suicide when that state passed its Death with Dignity Act. Under the act, Oregon law permits physician-assisted suicide for patients with less than six months to live. Patients must request physician assistance three times, receive a second opinion from another doctor, and wait 15 days to allow time to reconsider.

Before the Death with Dignity Act could take effect, opponents of the law succeeded in obtaining an injunction against it. Three years later, in November 1997, Oregon's legislature let the voters decide whether to repeal or retain the law. Voters reaffirmed the Death with Dignity Act. In August 1997, prior to voters' reaffirmation of Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law, about 7 in 10 people (69 percent) surveyed by the Harris Poll indicated they would approve of a similar law allowing physician-assisted suicide in their state. Asked again in 2001 whether they would favor or oppose such a law in their own state, 61 percent of respondents indicated they favored such legislation.

Using Federally-Controlled Drugs for Assisted Suicide

After the Death with Dignity Act took effect in November 1997, Thomas Constantine of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced that "delivering, dispensing, or prescribing a controlled substance with the intent of assisting a suicide" would be a violation of the federal Controlled Substances Act (PL 91-513). Then-Attorney General Janet Reno overruled Constantine.

In October 2000, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft overturned Reno's ruling in an attempt to again allow the DEA to act against physicians who prescribe lethal doses of controlled substances under Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law. In December 2001 the Harris Poll asked adults nationwide whether they considered Attorney General Ashcroft's effort to overrule the proposition right or wrong. More than half of respondents (58 percent) believed his action was wrong. On April 17, 2002, U.S. District Judge Robert E. Jones agreed, noting that "[t]o allow an attorney general—an appointed executive …—to determine the legitimacy of a particular medical practice … would be unprecedented and extraordinary." Jones's ruling reaffirmed the Death with Dignity Act. The Justice Department appealed the ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. On May 26, 2004, the court upheld Jones's ruling against Ashcroft.