Oregon will no longer require terminally ill people seeking to end their lives with lethal drugs prescribed by a resident physician in the state, according to the settlement of a federal lawsuit that claimed the requirement was unconstitutional.
The Oregon Health Authority, Oregon Medical Board and Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office agreed that they would “not enforce or otherwise enforce” the residency requirement, according to the regulationwhich was filed Monday in federal district court in Portland.
The settlement resolves a trial that Compassion & Choices, an advocacy group that supports expanding access to end-of-life medications, filed in October challenging the Oregon residency requirement, which the group said violated the Constitutional prohibition against states that favor their own residents over non-citizens.
The group sued on behalf of Dr. Nicholas Gideonse, a Portland physician and assistant professor of family medicine at Oregon Health & Science University.
In effect since 1997, Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act allows doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to dying patients who have completed a complex process of applications and waiting periods.
Dr Gideonse, a supporter of these laws, said in the lawsuit that he had been unable to write terminal prescriptions for patients who live in neighboring Washington State. (Dr. Gideonse is licensed to practice medicine in Oregon, but not in Washington.)
“Despite the likelihood that these individuals would otherwise be eligible for medical assistance in dying, it was unable to consider these requests solely on the basis of residency,” Compassion & Choices said in a statement Tuesday.
Laws in eight other states besides Oregon that allow medical assistance in dying — Washington, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico and Vermont — all include similar residency requirements, according to the group.
After the settlement was announced, Dr. Gideonse said he and his patients were deeply relieved that Oregon is no longer enforcing its residency requirement for medical aid.
“I feel really, really good about this resolution,” he said in a phone interview on Tuesday, adding that he was “pleasantly surprised it happened so quickly.”
He said that aside from end-of-life medicine, “no other aspect of my medical care is limited by the state line.”
Although the settlement still calls on Oregon medical authorities to ask the state legislature to officially remove language of residence from the law, Dr. Gideonse said he feels confident to proceed as if the requirement had been waived.
“I feel safe talking to my patients in Washington,” he said.
Kevin Díaz, head of legal advocacy for Compassion & Choices, said in a statement that Oregon “has long been a leader in upholding the rights of the dying and that state officials’ prompt resolution of this action is everything.” fully consistent with these values.”
The Oregon Medical Board declined to comment beyond the settlement in court documents, a spokeswoman for the board said. The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office declined to comment. The Oregon Health Authority did not immediately respond to an inquiry Tuesday.
Since the enactment of the Oregon Death With Dignity Act, 2,159 people have died after ingesting terminally ill drugs, according to a Oregon Health Authority report.
To be eligible for life-ending drugs, Oregon law requires a patient to be at least 18 years old, “able to make and communicate health care decisions to professionals.” health” and has been diagnosed with a terminal illness that will result in death within six months.
Laura Echevarria, spokeswoman for National Right to Life, which opposes such laws, said in a statement that the change to this law “allows anyone traveling to Oregon to request assisted suicide.”
“We believe Oregon will become the state for assisted suicide tourism,” she said in an email Tuesday.
But Mr Díaz said such an outcome was highly unlikely.
“The reality is that most terminally ill people are too ill to travel long distances to Oregon,” he said, adding that it would be difficult for them “to complete the multi-step process. required by law”.
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