Oregon 2024 assisted suicide report: Increase in death prescriptions again.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The number of lethal poison prescriptions written under the Oregon assisted suicide law increased in 2024 with 607 prescriptions written, which was up from 566 in 2023 and 433 in 2022.

The 2024 Oregon assisted suicide report indicated that there were 376 reported assisted suicide deaths up by from 305 in 2022. 

Similar to previous years the 2024 report updated the data from the 2023 report. The 2023 report stated that there were 367 reported assisted suicide deaths, but the 2024 report stated that there were 386 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2023. Therefore the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) received 19 assisted suicide death reports from 2023 after the 2023 report was completed.

Since every year late assisted suicide reports are submitted, I predict that there were likely 400 reported Oregon assisted suicide deaths in 2024.

Article: Oregon assisted suicide prescriptions increased by 29% in 2023 (Link).

Dr Sharon Quick

Mike Francis stated for The Lund report on March 27 that:

...opponents point to the steady growth in numbers of people requesting lethal medication — fewer than 100 people a year did so before 2011 — and say the system of physician-assisted suicide does a disservice to patients.

“A death request is often a plea for help, but legalizing assisted suicide may allow an option to die to transform into a duty to die,” said Dr. Sharon Quick, President of Physicians for Compassionate Care Education Foundation, in a prepared statement. “No one, including health care professionals, should be given god-like power to decide which vulnerable lives are no longer worthwhile because of the disability of terminal illness or psychological distress over disabilities associated with terminal decline.”

Possible under-reporting of assisted suicide deaths in Oregon

The 2024 Oregon assisted suicide report indicated that the ingestion status was unknown in 178 cases. This means that 178 people who were approved and received the lethal drugs that the OHA does not know how they died. 

• Some of these deaths are "late reported" assisted suicide deaths that will be in the updated data in the 2025 report. 
• Some of these people will die by assisted suicide in 2025. 
• Some of these people will have died a natural death. 
• It is likely, but unknown, because it is not investigated, that some of these people died by assisted suicide but no report was submitted.

Other important data: 

• 43 of the assisted suicide deaths in 2024 were people who received the lethal poison in previous years. 
• Only 3 of the 607 people who were prescribed lethal poison, were referred for a psychiatric assessment.

Complications are only known when a health care provider is present at the death. In 2024 there were 9 known complications based on 121 reports which was down from 10 known complications based on 103 deaths in 2023.

In 2024, the time of death ranged from 7 minutes to 26 hours. In 2023, one person took 137 hours (5 days and 17 hours) to die.

The report indicated that 23 of the 376 reported assisted suicide deaths were out-of-state residents. There could be more than 23 out-of-state assisted suicide deaths. The report included the following disclaimer related to out-of-state assisted suicide deaths.

Previously, residence information was collected from the patient’s death certificate. However, for patients who die outside of Oregon and are not Oregon residents, OHA has no way to obtain notice of those deaths.

As with previous years, the report implies that the deaths were voluntary (self-administered), but the information in the report does not address that subject.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown, in July 2019, signing Bill SB 0579 into law to essentially eliminate the 15 day assisted suicide waiting period. This expansion of assisted suicide allows the physician to waive the waiting period, and if the patient is depressed, the patient loses the opportunity to change their mind.

In 2024, in 179 deaths the physician waived the 15 day waiting period which was up from 154 deaths in 2023. In some cases the lethal poison was ingested the day after being first requested.

Oregon is currently debating 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. 

The Oregon Medical Association are against Bill SB 1003. Among other comments, the OMA stated in their intervention that the bill may allow euthanasia: 

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 based on the language of the bill.