X-Message-Number: 8735 Date: Fri, 07 Nov 1997 11:10:02 -0700 From: David Brandt-Erichsen <> Subject: Two news reports on Oregon From the PORTLAND OREGONIAN (Friday Nov 7/97) PHARMACY BOARD REQUIRES NOTIFICATION Doctors must spell out on prescriptions that medication is for assisted suicide, so pharmacists can choose whether to participate By Patrick O'Neil of The Oregonian staff FanZone Forum ---------- Doctors who write life-ending prescriptions under Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law will have to spell out the purpose of the medication. An emergency rule approved Thursday by the Oregon Board of Pharmacy requires doctors to specify in writing on the prescription that the medication is being requested for assisted suicide. Oregon pharmacists long have been uneasy that the law, which permits terminally ill patients to seek deadly doses of medication, doesn't require anyone to notify them when they are participating in a suicide. The Death With Dignity Act, approved by voters as Measure 16 in 1994, allows physicians and other health care workers to choose not to assist suicides if it violates their ethics. But pharmacists have been concerned that they wouldn't have that choice. The new rule says physicians must refer to ORS 127.800, the legal statute of the Oregon Death With Dignity Act, on prescriptions. Paige Clark, a Portland pharmacist and chairwoman of an Oregon Association of Pharmacists task force on assisted suicide, said notification is important to pharmacists who want to help in doctor-assisted suicides and those who don't. "A pharmacist has a professional obligation to not only evaluate every prescription but has a professional right to decide whether to fill that prescription," she said. Pharmacists who want to help with suicides say the notification will let them better counsel patients on how to use the medication. "Pharmacists, with their training and background, can be exceptionally helpful to a physician and may indeed be the entity that will determine success or failure" of the assisted suicide, Clark said. Joseph Schnabel, a pharmacy board member and assistant director of the Salem Hospital pharmacy, said, "If they're going to take a large dose of barbiturates, they need to take it very rapidly because of the possibility that they'd fall asleep before they finished it." The emergency rule can remain in effect for six months, then must be replaced with a permanent rule that requires public hearings. ------------- The following wire story was issued by ASSOCIATED PRESS (Nov 7/97; 4:48 a.m. EST) LAWMAKERS DROP IDEA OF SESSION ON SUICIDE LAW By BRAD CAIN The Associated Press SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Legislative leaders have dropped the idea of calling a special session to fine-tune the assisted suicide law that was upheld by the state's voters earlier this week. The possibility was raised Wednesday that House and Senate members might be called back to Salem to consider issues such as residency requirements for people wanting lethal prescriptions. On Thursday, however, Senate President Brady Adams said that, after meeting with Gov. John Kitzhaber, House Speaker Lynn Lundquist and others, he saw no compelling reason to have a special session. Calling a session would be premature and might be seen by voters as a further attempt to derail the law, the Grants Pass Republican said. "There was no enthusiasm for it," Adams said. Instead of a special session, legislative leaders appointed a joint House-Senate committee that will study the suicide law and possibly propose changes to the 1999 Legislature. Adams, meanwhile, also said he didn't want to go to the expense and effort of a special session when there still is a prospect the law could be blocked by further legal action. There's disagreement about whether the law is in effect or continues to be tied up by paperwork resulting from an earlier case that was thrown out by the U.S. Supreme Court. Two U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judges who vacated the injunction Oct. 27 said Thursday that Oregon's law is in effect, The Oregonian reported. The National Right to Life attorney who's been trying to overturn Oregon's law said Thursday he likely will file a further legal appeal which could put the suicide law on hold for months or longer. "It's a possibility if someone comes forward and has standing" to sue, said James Bopp of Terre Haute, Ind. Despite the legal uncertainty surrounding the issue, Oregon's medical community is pushing ahead and trying to figure out exactly how to implement the law, which allows terminally ill patients to ask their doctor for a lethal prescription of drugs. "It's fair to say that we have a number of concerns about this, and we don't have the answers," said Dr. Patrick Dunn, who is chairman of the Task Force to Improve the Care of Terminally Ill Oregonians. The task force, which has representatives of 25 hospitals and medical professional organizations, was formed after the 1994 law passed to give guidance to caregivers about medical and ethical issues surrounding assisted suicide. The group is working on a handbook for doctors and others who might be involved in assisted suicides. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8735