X-Message-Number: 8956
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 1997 10:19:13 -0700
From: David Brandt-Erichsen <>
Subject: Oregon records being kept secret

The following wire story was issued by ASSOCIATED PRESS
(December 30/97; 4:35 a.m. EST)

STATE ORDERS VITAL RECORDS ON SUICIDE CASES KEPT PRIVATE

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) -- Since Oregon's first-in-the-nation assisted suicide
law took effect, it's possible that one or more people have obtained
lethal prescriptions, The Register-Guard reported today.

The state Health Division has instructed county agencies that handle
vital records to keep quiet.

"You will neither confirm nor deny if a (physician assisted) death has
occurred in your county," said a Dec. 12 memo from Sharon Rice of the
Health Division's Center for Health Statistics.

The memo advises counties to forward all questions to the Health
Division, which already has said it won't release when the first
assisted death occurs or answer questions about specific time periods.

Rather, the agency will release an annual report as directed by the law.

To show "how seriously this matter is being taken by the state Health
Division, any staff within the Center for Health Statistics that reveals
any information they are not authorized to release will immediately be
terminated," Rice's memo said.

Any county found responsible for a leak will be stripped of its
authority to access and distribute vital records for the state, the memo
warned.

The controversy over assisted suicide has pushed the need for security
beyond the usual, said Dr. Katrina Hedberg of the Oregon Health
Division.

"These steps may be totally unprecedented, but so is this whole law,"
she said. "The stakes are really high here. A breach of confidentiality
around a case of salmonellosis (food poisoning) is not the same as a
breach revealing which doctor in which town in Oregon assisted a
suicide."

State officials say they are following the requirement in the assisted
suicide law that information collected "shall not be a public record and
may not be made available for inspection by the public."

They are also concerned that information leaks will anger doctors into
refusing to report assisted deaths.

Some believe the Health Division's efforts exceed the requirements and
risk violating the public interest in understanding the impact of the
assisted suicide law.

"I think it's important for people to be aware of what is going on out
there," said Rob Rockstroh, director of Lane County's Health and Human
Services department.

Rockstroh said it's possible to release more information about the time
and place of assisted deaths without breaking the confidentiality of
dying patients and their doctors. "We won't break confidentiality. But
they're telling us we can't even talk about this. It's like a gag
order," he said.

Opponents of assisted suicide say the secrecy prevents the scrutiny
needed to prevent abuses of the law.

"There is no information to know whether there are groups that are being
systematically herded toward suicide by the withholding of support or
care or other medical services," said Dr. Gregory Hamilton, president of
Physicians for Compassionate Care, a group that lobbied for the repeal
of Measure 16.

Hamilton said information about people who die by lethal prescription --
such as their insurance status, history of depression or substance
abuse, and ethnic background -- could be used to spot a disproportionate
number of assisted suicides among any one group.

But Dr. Glenn Gordon of Eugene, a supporter of the law, said the privacy
of patients who choose assisted suicide deserves zealous protection.

"To publicize it and make a newsworthy dramatic thing is not the intent
of the law," he said. "The law, approved by a majority of voters, is to
help patients when they are dying in the most caring and humane way.
Whatever the health department does to assure that, it seems to me that
that is right."

Gordon said a heightened standard of confidentiality also would protect
physicians who participate from being targets of protests.

"There are a group of opponents who are just waiting to find a problem
so they can jump on it and publicize it," Gordon said. He said he's
satisfied that annual reporting by the Health Division will provide
ample scrutiny. He also doesn't expect any serious abuses of the law.

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