Oregon Voters Back Doctor-Assisted Suicide 60 Percent Vote Against Repeal Of Law; Suicide Opponents Vow More Lawsuits

Three years after approving the nation’s only law allowing doctor-assisted suicide, Oregonians voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to keep it on the books.

With 56 percent of the state’s precincts reporting, a measure to repeal the law was being rejected by 542,251 “no” votes, or 60 percent, to 359,921 “yes” votes, or 40 percent.

“The people of Oregon have spoken twice now at the ballot box,” said Barbara Coombs Lee, chief sponsor of the 1994 law allowing physicians to prescribe life-ending drugs to their terminally ill patients.

Downcast opponents of assisted suicide were shocked by the large margin by which Measure 51 was defeated.

“This is a tragic day for Oregon, the nation and the world,” said Bob Castagna of the Oregon Catholic Conference, which had lobbied the Legislature to put the issue back before voters.

The law never has been used because of legal challenges, and it probably will remain stalled for months or longer even with the defeat of Measure 51.

However, an embarrassed state attorney general’s office said Tuesday evening the law actually has been in effect since Oct. 27, and no longer is tied up by paperwork stemming from court appeals.

But no terminally ill patients have asked for suicide drugs, officials said, and it’s expected that opponents of the law will file another lawsuit and block the law again before anyone has a chance to commit suicide.

The law has a 15-day waiting period from the time patients ask for a lethal prescription to when they could receive the drugs.

The U.S. Supreme Court recently refused to hear a challenge of Oregon’s law mostly on technical grounds, and a National Right to Life lawyer said he may challenge it.

“If someone came to me and said, ‘My mother is terminally ill and suicidal and needs protection from this unconstitutional law,’ then I would consider representing them,” said James Bopp, a Terre Haute, Ind., lawyer who filed the first lawsuit against assisted suicide.