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March 15, 2007

Assisted Suicides at All Time High New Oregon Figures Show

Oregon is well down the slippery slope:

The number of Oregon residents using the state's assisted suicide law to kill themselves is on the rise. New figures from the state's health department show more people in Oregon died under the assisted suicide law in 2006 than any year previously.

The Department of Human Services of Oregon, in its annual report, reveals that 46 Oregonians, most of them suffering from cancer, kill themselves after getting a prescription for a lethal amount of drugs from their physician.

The number is up eight from the 38 people took their lives under the assisted suicide law in 2005 and higher than in other years.

[snip]

Diane Coleman, president of Not Dead Yet, a leading disability rights group said that the longer the Oregon law stays around the more disabled patients are feeling obligated to end their lives when they become a so-called "burden" to their families.

"What looks to some like a choice to die begins to look more like a duty to die to many disability activists," she said.

Posted by tim at March 15, 2007 12:25 PM

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