Oregon assisted suicide expansion bill may permit euthanasia.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

An article by Aimee Green that was published in the Oregonian on March 4, 2025 states that Oregon Senate Bill 1003 that would expand the Oregon assisted suicide law appears to lack the necessary support to pass.

On February 12 I published an article explaining that the Oregon assisted suicide Bill SB 1003 would expand the Oregon assisted suicide law by:

• allows non physicians, such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners to participate in assisted suicide and,
• reduces the waiting period from 15 days to 48 hours while enabling the "providing prescriber" to waive the waiting period to essentially allow a same day death and,
• requires hospices and hospitals to publicly disclose their assisted suicide policy.

SB 1003, if passed, would be the third time that Oregon would have expanded its assisted suicide law.

According to Green, SB 1003 appears to lack support. Green reported:

No individual lawmakers have signed on as sponsors of Senate Bill 1003, which was filed by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Only two people spoke in favor of the bill Monday. Eight people spoke in opposition, along with 150 Oregonians who submitted written testimony objecting to the bill.

Jake Thomas reported on March 4 for the Lund Report that Dr Sharon Quick, President of the Physicians for Compassionate Care Education Foundation opposes SB 1003. Thomas stated:

“This bill devalues patients suffering from disabilities, such as mental health problems, lack of capacity, psychological distress over loss of function that will not be uncovered due to inadequate time for assessment,” she said. “Nor is there time for patients to change their minds, which they often do.”

Quick, told the committee the bill would allow non physicians without relevant expertise “to make some of the most difficult medical assessments without a second opinion.”

Quick called on lawmakers to increase access to palliative care, which she said can ease the suffering of terminally ill patients who consider medically assisted dying. Such care would focus on the quality of the patient’s life, including minimizing suffering.

The Oregon Medical Association came out against Bill SB 1003. Among other comments, the OMA stated in their intervention that: 

Changing the Responsible Clinician from “Attending Physician” to “Provider” 

The bill proposes replacing “attending physician” with “provider,” a term that is overly broad and includes institutions and facilities, not just individual clinicians. Physicians undergo the most extensive and supervised medical training to diagnose, assess patient capacity, and evaluate mental health conditions before prescribing life-ending medication. Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act and MAiD must use the highest levels of training for those making these critical determinations. 

Confusing and Potentially Dangerous Language

Certain provisions in SB 1003 suggest that medications intended to shorten the dying process could be administered to the patient rather than by the patient, creating ambiguity and raising concerns about unintended movement toward euthanasia. For example, Section 1(2)(a) states: “A hospice program shall publicly disclose its current policy regarding the Oregon Death With Dignity Act, including whether a patient receiving services from the hospice program may elect to end the patient’s life…” This language implies that the hospice program, rather than the patient, plays a role in making the decision, which is inconsistent with the original intent of the law.

The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition has stated that the language of the legislation appears to permit euthanasia. We are thankful that the Oregon Medical Association commented on the same concerns with the loose language of the bill. 

Euthanasia is an act of homicide whereby the medical professional actively kills the patient, whereby assisted suicide is an act of assisting a suicide whereby the medical professional prescribes the patient a poison cocktail for the purpose of suicide.