Elderly Cancer Victim Exercises Right To Die Portland Woman First Known Case To Use Oregon’s Assisted Suicide Law

An elderly woman who battled breast cancer for 20 years has become the first person disclosed to have died under the nation’s only doctor-assisted suicide law.

Because physician’s reports are required but confidential, there was no way of knowing how many others may have committed suicide under the law. Hours after the elderly woman’s death was disclosed, The Oregonian reported that an unidentified cancer patient had earlier committed suicide under the law.

In the case made public Wednesday by the right-to-die group Compassion In Dying, the grandmother in her mid-80s, whose name was withheld by her family, died Tuesday night about 30 minutes after taking a lethal dose of barbiturates mixed with syrup, and washed down with a glass of brandy.

“I am looking forward to it because being I was always active I cannot comfortably see myself living out two more months like this,” the woman said in a brief audio tape made two days before her death. “I will be relieved of all the stress I have.”

She said had been given less than two months to live and could no longer enjoy her beloved pastimes, such as gardening in her back yard.

“If somebody’s saying that I’m sitting in a chair waiting to die, that’s not right because I have always been able to get around and do things. And now suddenly I’m in the position I can’t even walk very good. And I’ve had trouble breathing,” she said.

Surrounded by family members and her physician in her Portland home, she fell into a deep sleep five minutes after taking the concoction.

“She swallowed the medication and died a half hour later, very peacefully,” said Barbara Coombs Lee, head of Compassion In Dying and author of the law.

Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act, first passed by voters in 1994 and affirmed last year, allows doctors to prescribe lethal drugs at the request of terminally ill patients who have less than six months to live. Doctors may only prescribe a lethal dose, not administer it.

In the five months since the last court fight ended and the measure took effect, there have been no other cases of someone coming forward to take advantage of the law and make a public point about the right to die.

Even supporters of the measure say they have had numerous inquiries from patients, but this is the first case they know of where a person has used the law.

State officials, citing privacy laws, would not confirm whether there has been a case. They say they will release a preliminary report as soon as they have recorded 10 suicides.

Oregon’s chief epidemiologist, David Fleming, said he had no previous word about the elderly woman’s suicide plans.

In the campaign last fall over the measure, opponents suggested that the state would become a magnet for people who wanted medical assistance to die.

Though that groundswell has not materialized, opponents were saddened by news of the first state-sanctioned suicide.

“This is a tragic and sad day for Oregon and the United States,” said Bob Castagna, a spokesman for the Oregon Catholic Conference. “Assisted suicide has begun in the state of Oregon to our profound regret and sorrow. May God have mercy on all of us.”