A 2025 Oregon assisted suicide death took 123 hours (more than 5 days) to die.
Assisted suicide is not a peaceful or a dignified way to die.
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
On April 6 I reported that the 2025 Oregon assisted suicide report stated that there were 637 poison prescriptions written in 2025 which was up from 609 in 2024. I also reported that the 2025 Oregon report indicated that there were 400 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2025.
I then stated that based on reporting issues there were likely 450 (not 400) assisted suicide deaths in 2025.
As stated in the headline, in 2025 the longest time of death was 123 hours (more than 5 days). Deaths that take 123 hours are clearly not a peaceful or dignified deaths. In 2023 the longest time of death was 137 hours (almost 6 days).
It is possible that there were other long drawn out deaths, but the Oregon report only has data when someone else was present at the death. The Oregon report indicates that data is only available in 291 of the 400 deaths.
The 2024 Oregon report stated that there were 376 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2024. The 2025 report updated the data and stated that there were 421 reported assisted suicide deaths in 2024. Therefore more than 12% (45) of the Oregon assisted suicide death reports were received late.
When an Oregon doctor prescribes the assisted suicide poison cocktail the Oregon assisted suicide law requires that same doctor to send a report to the Oregon Health Authority after the patient died.
The 2025 report stated that a doctor was present at the death in 111 of the 400 reported assisted suicide deaths and in 2024, a doctor was only present at the death in 117 of the 421 reported assisted suicide deaths. Since the prescribing doctor is usually not present at the death, it doesn't surprise me that many of the reports are submitted to the Oregon Health Authority late.
Based on the fact that more than 12% of the 2024 reports were reported in 2025, I predict a similar outcome in 2026 resulting in approximately 450 reported 2025 assisted suicide deaths being declared within the 2026 Oregon report.
For further clarification.
The 2025 Oregon report stated that there were 389 reported assisted
suicide deaths in 2023. The 2024 report stated that there were 386
reported assisted suicide deaths in 2023 and the 2023 report stated that
there were 367 reported assisted suicide deaths. That means there were 2023
assisted suicide reports submitted in 2024 and there were 2023 assisted
suicide death reports submitted in 2025.
Are there unreported assisted suicide deaths in Oregon?
The Oregon Health Authority does not investigate the deaths of people who were prescribed and receiving a poison cocktail but whose doctor did not submit an assisted suicide report. Therefore I can only speculate that some Oregon assisted suicide deaths go unreported.
According to the 2025 Oregon assisted suicide report, 637 poison prescriptions were obtained. The 637 poison prescriptions resulted in 358 people who were known to have died by assisted suicide, (42 people were known to have died by assisted suicide but received the poison in previous years), 100 people died a natural death and the ingestion status was unknown in 179 cases of which 80 died but the ingestion status was unknown and for 99 people the death and ingestion status was unknown.
When the ingestion status is unknown the Oregon Health Authority does not know if the person died a natural death or died by assisted suicide.
Since I am predicting that 50 of the 179 "ingestion status unknown" cases are assisted suicide deaths where the assisted suicide report will be received late. But considering the fact that a doctor is usually not at the death, it is likely that some of the remaining 129 "ingestion status unknown" cases are actually unreported assisted suicide deaths.
Oregon is not the only state with these reporting problems.
The California 2024 assisted suicide report also reported that a significant number of assisted suicide reports received late, but the 2024 California report also indicated that of the 1591 Californians who received the poison prescription, the ingestion status was unknown for 388 of the people. It is likely that California has a problem with the under reporting of assisted suicide deaths.
Are there other ways that the Oregon law lacks oversight?
The Oregon assisted suicide law was sold to the public based on competent adults who are freely consenting and "self-ingest" the poison.
In most Oregon assisted suicide deaths there is no way to know whether those conditions were met. The first reason is that a medical professional is usually not at the death. The second reason is that the Oregon law relies on a self-reporting system, meaning, the doctor who prescribes the poison is also the doctor that is required to report the death. There is no effective oversight in a self-reporting system. Doctors will not self-report abuse of the law. The third reason is that the Oregon Health Authority does not have the legislated authority to research the cases where the person died and the ingestion status is unknown.
Killing has become a specialty.
The 2025 report states that 155 physicians prescribed assisted suicide poison at least once, but one physician, in 2025, prescribed the assisted suicide poison 101 times. In 2024 one physician prescribed the poison 84 times and in 2023 one physician prescribed the poison 76 times. It is very likely that one physician has prescribed the assisted suicide poison 261 times in the past three years.
Inadequate pain control is not a primary reason for assisted suicide requests.
The death lobby sells the legalization of assisted suicide based on the fear of dying a painful death, but the data indicates that most people do not seek assisted suicide based on inadequate control of pain.
The 2025 report states that the three main reasons that Oregonians asked for assisted suicide were: 89% Losing autonomy, 89% Less able to engage in activities that make life enjoyable, 65% Loss of dignity (an undefined concern).
There is much more that I could write about the 2025 Oregon assisted suicide report but I will conclude by pointing out a few more concerns:
- 2 out of 637 people who were prescribed poison received a psychological or psychiatric evaluation and in 2024 not one of the 609 who were prescribed poison received a psychological or psychiatric evaluation.
- 54% of the people who died by assisted suicide were women.
- There were 37 out of state residents who were prescribed poison.
More information on these topics.
No comments:
Post a Comment