Date: February 26th, 1998
On this day with SHAC, a health panel in Oregon ruled that taxpayers must help to pay for doctor-assisted suicides. Under Oregon’s law permitting physician-assisted suicide, the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) – previously called the Oregon Health Division (OHD) – required to collect information, review a sample of cases, and publish a yearly statistical report. Since the law, called the “Death with Dignity Act,” went into effect in 1997, 10 official reports have been published. However, due to major flaws in the law and the state’s reporting system, there is no way to know precisely how many patients – under which circumstances – have died from physician-assisted suicide.
In 1998, the panel that convened discussed the costs and situations that had been previously raised, emerging with the consensus that this law, and these actions, were not to be subsidized by the public through taxes.
This moment in history relates to current events in Canada, where Justin Trudeau’s Liberals want to outline a new law governing doctor-assisted dying by mid-summer – before Canadians head to the polls in October. Though the Liberal Party is not specifically asking for tax money from taxpayers, this will inevitably come out of the provincial and federal healthcare budgets that are funded, in part, by taxpayers. Interestingly enough, that means that, barring Trudeau gets his way, OHIP will now include physician assisted suicide and healthcare.