Supreme Court to scrutinize Oregon
Oregon’s Death with Dignity Law is going to be reviewed by the high court on October 5. Since its passing in 1997, only 208 patients have taken advantage of the legistlation that permits a doctor to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to suffering patients who wish to end their lives on their own terms.
A group of doctors and the Church have filed opposing briefs in the matter, arguing that the law reverses the primary role of the doctor as a healer and that it sends a negative message to sick people: that their lives aren’t worth protecting, that their suicides aren’t worth preventing.
We’re talking about a very small group of terminally ill patients (1 in 1000 deaths) who want to say goodbye to their families. How would taking this choice away from them improve their lives or anyone else’s?
In the US in 2000, 16,586 people chose firearms as the means to take their own lives. Those are the suicides to prevent.