Washington
State’s Death With Dignity Act, based
on Oregon’s, came into operation on 9 March 2009.
Lethal prescriptions up 22% in one year - more than doubled since 2010
In the first full
calendar year of operation, 2010, some 87 prescriptions for lethal drugs were
provided under the Act. By 2015 this had increased by nearly two and a half
times (244.8%) to 213.[1] Prescriptions
for lethal drugs increased by 22% from 2014 to 2015.[2]
Deaths from assisted suicide up 31.7% in one year - more than tripled since 2010
Deaths from
lethal drugs prescribed under the Act have increased three and a quarter fold (325%)
from 51 in 2010 to 166 in 2015, increasing by nearly one third (31.7%) from
2014 to 2015 alone.
Not all of those
who are prescribed lethal drugs end up taking them. Some die of natural causes.
285 doses of lethal drugs unaccounted for in the community
There is no tracking of lethal drugs that are not used by those for whom they are
prescribed so these lethal drugs are available in the community and could be
used accidentally or intentionally to cause death. Of the 936 prescriptions for
lethal drugs issued since 2009 only 651 (71%) have been reported as used
leaving up some 285 doses of lethal drugs unaccounted for in the community.
Main concerns are loss of autonomy and burden on family rather than pain control
Some 65% of those
for whom a prescription for lethal drugs was provided did not cite any concern
about pain control as a reason for asking for the prescription.
However, 86%
cited concerns about loss of autonomy and 52% cited concerns about being a
burden on family, friends or caregivers.
Assisted suicide to save money
Significantly, 13% of those for whom a doctor wrote a prescription for lethal drugs cited concerns about the financial implications of treatment.[3]
Very few referrals for expert psychiatric evaluation
Only 4% of those
given a lethal prescription were referred to a psychiatrist or psychological
for evaluation.
Doctors who barely know the patient but are prepared to assist suicide
In some cases the prescribing doctor knew the patient for less
than a week before writing the prescription, and in just over half the cases
(51%) the doctor knew the patient for less than 25 weeks.[4]
Doctors getting the prognosis wrong and assisting suicide for people with years to live
Although the Act
specifies that only persons with “six months or less to live” may request
lethal doses of medication from a physician, the data shows that in each year
between 5% and 17% of those who die after requesting a lethal dose do so more
than 25 weeks later with one person in 2012 dying nearly 3 years (150 weeks)
later, and one person in 2015 dying nearly two years later (95 weeeks).[5]
A peaceful death - what about the complications?
In 2013 one
person took 3 hours to lose consciousness after ingesting the lethal dose and
one person took 41 hours (1 day and 17 hours) to die after ingesting the dose. In
2015 one person took 72 minutes (1 hour and 12 minutes) hours to lose
consciousness after ingesting the lethal dose and one person took 30 hours (1
day and 6 hours) to die after ingesting the dose. In 2009 two people awakened
after initially losing consciousness. At least 9 patients have regurgitated the
lethal medication. In 2014 one person suffered seizures after ingesting the
lethal medication.[6]
In 226 cases we do not who gave the person the lethal drugs or even if they struggled
There is no
requirement under the Act for a physician or any other person to be present
when the lethal dose is ingested. Since 2009 there have been 175 cases where no
health-care provider was present when the lethal dose was ingested and a further
51 cases where it is not known if a health-care provider was present.[7] In other
words in some 226 cases people have died ingesting a dose of lethal medication,
legally prescribed under Washington law, and nobody knows whether the person
freely ingested the lethal dose or they were cajoled, coerced or forced to do
so by another person.
Assisted suicide may increase the overall suicide rate
Proponents have claimed that legalising physician assisted
suicide would actually prevent, or at least delay, suicides by giving those
faced with a terminal illness an assurance that the means for obtaining peaceful death was legally available.
However, a study of comparative rates of suicide in US states found that for
the states, like Oregon and Washington, which had legalised physician assisted
suicide there is an increase in the overall suicide rate of 6.3% compared to
all other states and of the suicide rate of those aged 65 and over of 14.5%.
There is no reduction in either the rate of non-assisted suicides or in the
mean age of suicide.[8]
Victoria should avoid going down this path
Recommendation 49 of the Report
of the Legal and Social Issues Committee’s Inquiry into End of Life Choices, which is currently being considered by the Andrews Labor Government in the Australian state of Victoria would make it lawful for a doctor to prescribe a lethal drug for certain patients,
enabling the patient to commit suicide by ingesting the lethal drug.
The majority report falsely claims that all is well in places like Oregon (see the earlier Defend Human Life blog in March 2016) and Washington State.
As the above analysis shows it is far from well.
[1] Washington
State Department of Health 2015 Death
with Dignity Act Report, p. 4, http://www.doh.wa.gov/portals/1/Documents/Pubs/422-109-DeathWithDignityAct2015.pdf
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.,
Table 2 on p. 7
[4] Ibid.,
Table 3 on p.8
[5] Washington
State Department of Health, Death with
Dignity Act Reports, 2009-2015 available at: http://www.doh.wa.gov/YouandYourFamily/IllnessandDisease/DeathwithDignityAct/DeathwithDignityData
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid.
[8] David Albert Jones and David Paton, How does legalization of physician-assisted suicide affect rates of suicide?, SMJ: Southern Medical Journal, Vol. 108, Issue 10, p. 599-604, http://sma.org/southern-medical-journal/article/how-does-legalization-of-physician-assisted-suicide-affect-rates-of-suicide/
