LIFE AND DEATH IN THE GREAT NORTHWEST - PART I

Since Oregon has always been a socially pioneering sort of place, we can’t be surprised that the Portland metro area is the nation’s most successful example of containing sprawl by setting and sticking to an urban growth boundary. Or that, in an effort to boost turnout and reduce costs, Oregon is unique among the fifty states in holding all statewide elections entirely by mail-in ballot.

More notoriously, of course, Oregon is also unique in having passed, and after many subsequent challenges, having retained on its books for over ten years now a straightforward Death With Dignity law. As ultimately upheld by the US Supreme Court, terminally ill Oregonians, subject to specific conditions and safeguards, have the right to physician assistance in dying. Once those conditions and safeguards are met, the assistance takes the form of a physician prescribing a lethal dose of an approved drug, which the patient then ingests, or not, at a time and place of their own choosing, according to the directions provided. The physi- cian is not expected to be in attendance, nor are physicians re- quired to offer this assistance if they have a moral objection.

After a decade of experience, fewer than 350 persons (1/10 of 1% of all Oregon deaths) have availed themselves of that option, although another 200 have received the prescribed drug and chosen, for whatever reason, not to proceed. Forty individual physicians have participated. No coercion toward a hastened death from family members or the government is permitted, and to my knowledge there have been no documented cases of abuse. What is known, however, is that terminally ill patients who have gotten the drug, whether they use it or not, report a having a greater sense of control over their destiny and feeling more peace of mind in facing the continued deterioration of their health.

This is old news, you say, so why do I belabor it? Two reasons. First, the November 2008 election in Washington, Oregon’s neighbor to the north, will put before voters an initiative statute, I-1000, closely modeled on the Oregon law. If current polls can be believed, it will pass, and the campaign in favor is being led by a popular former governor, Booth Gardner, who is visibly af- flicted with Parkinson’s Disease. Besides, Washington, though not as socially pioneering as Oregon, is itself a fairly independent-minded place.

There is opposition, as one would expect. As in Oregon, religious conservatives, especially the Catholic Church, can’t find enough ways to condemn the idea. Virtually all religions seek control over the births, marriages and deaths of their parishioners, the reasons for which are obvious. And since church affiliation in the US is freely chosen, no harm done. It's a voluntary compact. Whether government should intrude itself to insist that death occur in a way that ignores the wishes of the dying person and ignores the contributions modern medicine can make to that event is another question. Where, for instance, is the compelling state interest? I am fascinated to see what the Washington voters have to say about it. Church groups, meanwhile, are pumping millions into ads urging No on I-1000.

But perhaps the most interesting new development along these lines is occurring in Montana, a famously libertarian state that is separated from Washington to the east by only a thin neck of Idaho. We’ll discuss both Idaho and Montana in my next post.