Oregon's suicide rate continues to increase faster than the national average.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

Oregon's suicide rate has been increasing since 2000.

A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states:  

"New figures show a sharp rise in suicides among middle-aged Americans, and an even bigger increase in Oregon. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report shows suicides among men and women aged 35-64 increased 49 percent in Oregon from 1999-2010, compared to 28 percent nationally."

So much for the claim that legalizing assisted suicide will reduce other suicides.  

And then there's the financial cost. The article says:

"In 2011, 685 Oregonians killed themselves, twice the number who died in vehicle crashes and six times the homicide rate. In 2012, the number climbed to 709 people who took their own lives, according to preliminary numbers. Oregon's suicide rate has been increasing since 2000.

The financial cost is high. In 2010, self-inflicted injury hospitalization costs exceeded $41 million." 

It may not be possible to directly co-relate the increased suicide rate in Oregon in relation to the fact that assisted suicide became legal in Oregon in 1998, but it is a fact that the suicide rate in Oregon has steadily increased at a rate much higher than the national average.

It must also be stated that there were 77 assisted suicide deaths in 2012 in Oregon. These deaths are not counted among the number of suicide deaths.