Rogue state

Law | Euthanasia advocates celebrate Oregon as a nationwide model | Mark Bergin

This past February, Oregon resident David Prueitt awoke from a coma and asked, "Why am I not dead?" The terminally ill 42-year-old had self-administered a supposed lethal dose of barbiturates three days earlier in accordance with state law, under which doctors can legally prescribe suicidal amounts of drugs to qualifying patients. Mr. Prueitt lived for two more weeks before dying naturally of lung cancer, telling his wife that God had rejected his premature death and that doctor-assisted suicide is wrong.

Oregon is the only state with a law on its books saying otherwise. Oregon voters first passed the Death with Dignity Act as a citizen's initiative in 1994: It allows fully conscious patients projected to die within six months to end their lives prematurely via doctor-prescribed lethal overdoses. The Oregon Medical Association voted by a 122-1 margin in 1997 to oppose the Act, but 60 percent of Oregon voters that year rejected a measure to repeal it.