Word: lethal
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Steve Mason is ready for death. Since last December, the 65-year-old writer has kept four small bottles of clear liquid Nembutal-- a lethal dose of barbiturates--in his Ashland, Ore., condominium. And at some point in the next few months, when terminal lung cancer has spread to his liver or brain, when his breath is short and he feels too sick to eat or sleep, he will pick a day to gather close friends and family about him. He will give away his belongings and say his goodbyes. "It will be a celebration of life," Mason predicts...
...political battle that has surrounded Terri Schiavo, a radical experiment in end-of--life policy has unfolded much more quietly over the past seven years. Oregon's Death with Dignity Act, twice approved in statewide voter referendums, is the only statute in the U.S. allowing doctors to write lethal prescriptions for terminally ill patients who want to control the time and place of their death. The law would not affect a case like Schiavo's: patients qualify only if they are fully conscious and able to administer their own overdose. But Oregon represents a new frontier in the right...
...next big conflagration over end-of-life issues. Indeed, things have already begun to heat up. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed last month to take up a Bush Administration challenge to the Oregon law. The White House wants to revoke the license of any doctor who writes a lethal prescription, arguing that federal drug laws trump states' rights to regulate medical practice. Meanwhile, legislative committees in Vermont and California will vote this month on whether to adopt Oregon-style statutes. Other states have considered similar laws. If the polls are to be believed, the public is ready to give such...
...than most what a horror a slow death can be, have trouble with the idea of speeding up the process. The American Medical Association remains opposed to any aid-in-dying laws, and the group speaks for a lot of its members. "When a doctor writes a prescription for lethal drugs," says Portland, Ore., radiologist Kenneth Stevens, "the message to the patient is, 'I don't value you or your life...
What's perhaps most remarkable about the Oregon law, despite its opponents' fears, is how few people have used it. In seven years, according to the Oregon Department of Human Services, 208 people took legal, lethal overdose prescriptions--out of 64,706 Oregonians who died of the same diseases. Last year 40 doctors wrote 60 lethal prescriptions, but only 37 were used. For many patients, the drugs are a form of insurance. They can take the medicine if the pain gets too bad or if they deteriorate to the point that they feel ready to go, but otherwise...