Salem, Ore. – A dangerous new bill introduced in the Oregon legislature would lower guardrails to obtain assisted suicide prescriptions, putting medically vulnerable people at risk in Oregon and across the country.
Senate Bill 1003, introduced during Oregon’s 83rd legislative session, would modify existing terminology in Oregon’s “Death With Dignity” law to allow physician assistants and nurse practitioners, rather than exclusively physicians, to prescribe lethal drugs to end the lives of people diagnosed with a terminal illness. The bill would expand access to legal assisted suicide, which has already skyrocketed in recent years as a cause of death for Oregonians and out-of-state residents.
“This bill is dangerous and must be stopped,” Oregon Right to Life executive director Lois Anderson said. “If passed, it will usher in death on demand available to anyone whether they live in Oregon or not.”
“Instead of expanding opportunities for providers to prescribe toxic cocktails of life-ending drugs, making this dehumanizing practice more readily accessible, the Oregon legislature should focus on ensuring that all people facing end-of-life decisions have access to truly compassionate, high-quality palliative care,” Anderson said.
Oregon became the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide – euphemistically called “death with dignity” – in 1994. The measure took effect in 1997 after overcoming legal challenges. In 2023, Democratic Governor Tina Kotek signed a law stripping away the residency requirement for assisted suicide, allowing Oregon physicians to prescribe lethal drugs to people from other states. The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) had already stopped enforcing the residency requirement in 2022.
The rollback of the rule was followed by an immediate surge in overall prescriptions and deaths. The OHA report for 2023, released in March 2024, showed an almost 30% increase in physician-assisted suicide prescriptions and a 20% increase in reported deaths following ingestion of the prescribed drugs. In a press release, the government agency attributed the uptick in part to the removal of the residency requirement. Per the OHA report, a total of 4,274 people have been prescribed the lethal drugs since the passage of Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act, leading to the deaths of at least 2,847 people.
For media inquiries or interviews, please contact ORTL communications director Ashley Sadler at 530-859-1957 or ashley@ortl.org.
