(Oregon Right to Life) — Oregon saw an 8% increase in physician-assisted suicide prescriptions in 2024, building upon a 30% spike in 2023, according to the Oregon Health Authority (OHA)’s 27th annual report on the state’s “Death With Dignity Act” (DWDA). Assisted suicide deaths accounted for nearly 1% of all Oregon deaths in 2024.
On Thursday, the Oregon Health Authority released its annual report on the state’s “Death With Dignity” data. The document showed an 8.2% increase in physician-assisted suicide prescriptions and a slight decrease (2.5%) in reported deaths – though ingestion status for 29% of patients was reportedly unknown as of the time of the report.
Physicians in Oregon wrote 607 DWDA prescriptions in 2024, compared with 561 in 2023. 376 individuals are known to have died after consuming the drugs last year, compared with 386 in 2023. 43 of those who died in 2024 had been prescribed the lethal drugs in a previous year.
23 patients who died after consuming lethal medications in 2024 had reportedly “outlived their prognosis – that is, lived more than six months after receiving their prescription,” according to the OHA report. 83% of those who died from Oregon’s physician-assisted suicide drugs last year were over the age of 65, and 57% had cancer, down from 66% last year. 22 people who died in 2024 after ingesting lethal drugs were from a state other than Oregon, a development made possible by Democrat Governor Tina Kotek’s 2023 removal of the state’s residency requirement.
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Oregon Right to Life Executive Director Lois Anderson called the data “devastating” in a Thursday press release.
“Once again, Oregon’s assisted suicide report shows a devastating increase in lethal prescriptions for Oregon residents and people from other states,” Anderson said. “Legal assisted suicide sends a harsh message that our state believes some lives – especially the elderly, disabled, and medically complex – are less worth living. Real dignity and compassion is shown in love, care, and support – not in offering death as a solution.”
Only three patients were referred for psychological or psychiatric evaluation, according to the report, consistent with numbers typically reported in the annual OHA documents.
“The radically low number of reported psychological and psychiatric evaluations continues and is deeply concerning,” Anderson said in the press statement. “No matter their age or condition, a patient’s request for suicide should always trigger a thorough mental health analysis. Failure to provide this basic support for vulnerable patients is unconscionable.”
Dr. Angela Plowhead, Psy.D., a licensed psychologist who specializes in cognitive and decision-making capacity assessment, told Oregon Right to Life in a phone interview last month that mood disorders are common among people who are diagnosed with terminal diseases and may trigger suicidal ideation. She said there should be “a pretty significant evaluation” for mental health and potential mood disorders when a person expresses a desire for assisted suicide.
For Dr. Plowhead, Oregon providers should focus on assessing and treating mental health disorders “in a way that gives people hope,” rather than offering death as a solution.
Under Oregon’s “Death With Dignity” law, patients must be 18 or older, “capable of making and communicating health care decisions to health care practitioners,” and be “diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months.” Oregon Health Authority has confirmed that patients would qualify for assisted suicide if their condition would, “absent further treatment,” lead to death within six months. In practice, if patients with chronic conditions decide to opt out of continued treatment, they can qualify for assisted suicide under the law.
Jessica Rodgers, Coalitions Director for Patients Rights Action Fund, highlighted the broad practical criteria of the DWDA during a recent legislative hearing, noting that “conditions here in Oregon like anorexia and diabetes qualify for physician-assisted suicide.”
And deaths under Oregon’s assisted suicide program have risen year over year.
In 2023, Oregon saw a sharp 30% increase in DWDA prescriptions and a 20% increase in associated deaths. The increase has been partially linked to the removal of Oregon’s residency requirement, allowing people from any state to travel to Oregon for a lethal prescription.
Even as prescriptions and deaths continue to rise in Oregon, some are seeking to expand it even further.
This year, during Oregon’s 83rd legislative session, lawmakers are considering a bill that would drastically lower existing guardrails around the law.
Senate Bill 1003 would reduce the 15-day waiting period to a mere 48 hours; allow non-physicians to prescribe lethal medication; and force health care facilities to publicly disclose their participation in assisted suicide, making it easier to funnel patients toward pro-assisted suicide facilities.
Pro-life advocates have come out strongly against the bill, sending over 700 emails to lawmakers, submitting 174 written pieces of testimony, delivering live testimonies, and appearing at the Capitol in the dozens to demonstrate opposition to further expansions of assisted suicide.
Pro-life Republican Rep. E. Werner Reschke, who represents Oregon’s 55th District, told committee members during the March 3 public hearing for the proposed legislation that “Senate Bill 1003 is a bill with moral significance that compels me to be here,” decrying what he called Oregon’s “culture of death over life.”
Reschke also spoke about his own mother’s illness and the way his father cared for her in her final days.
“Eventually she couldn’t speak, but her mind was clear as day,” he said. “And every day my dad sat at her bed and cared for her and loved her until the last day she couldn’t breathe anymore. Colleagues, that’s dignity.”
Dr. Satya Chandragiri, M.D. a Salem-based psychiatrist who submitted written testimony opposing the bill, told Oregon Right to Life last month that 48 hours would be far too short a timeframe to assess a person’s consent to assisted suicide, and that even the current 15 day waiting period is insufficient.
People facing end-of-life decisions are often very vulnerable, physically weak, and may be dealing with cognitive difficulties, Chandragiri explained. In that condition, they often change their minds and “lack capacity to give consent,” even if they may seem to have made a choice. Moreover, he said, elderly people frequently feel and even express that they are “no use to anyone,” but that doesn’t mean they wish to die by assisted suicide.
READ: Mental Health Professionals Share Reasons for Opposing Oregon’s Radical Assisted Suicide Bill
Even without a legislative expansion, providers in Oregon have been offering increasingly more exemptions to patients to reduce the 15-day waiting period. In 2020, 20% of patients received an exemption. In 2024, 29% of patients received an exemption.
To date, 4,881 people have been prescribed lethal drugs since Oregon’s DWDA took effect in 1997, and at least 3,243 people (66%) have died after consuming them, the OHA report states.
The bill to expand the Death With Dignity Act was slated to go before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 31 for a work session, where lawmakers would decide whether or not to advance the bill in the legislature, but the session has been delayed. Oregon Right to Life has launched a campaign allowing pro-life advocates to email Senate Judiciary Committee members urging them to vote “no” on SB 1003.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated April 3 to note that the originally scheduled work session for SB 1003 was delayed.
Oregon Right to Life supports the sanctity of human life from the moment of conception until natural death. We oppose all cases of euthanasia, whereby a person is deliberately killed through direct action or omission even if that act is by their permission… In Oregon, the legal form of euthanasia is physician assisted suicide, and is euphemistically called “death with dignity.” In this act, a physician prescribes lethal drugs knowing their patient intends to use the drugs to commit suicide. Read the full statement and all our position statements here.
