Oregon Suicide Law, A Good Law Under Review

This is truly a matter of personal choice. The law is well crafted, and would be very difficult to abuse. As pointed out on American Street, there are some solid protections built into this law.

The patient must be diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months
The patient then must make two oral and one written requests (the latter signed by two witnesses) for medication
The diagnosis and prognosis must be verified by a second physician
The patient must be evaluated for psychological health

Since the law seems to be solid on those grounds the Government is using a unique approach to try to have it tossed out. This law is being challenged in the Supreme Court over the federal Governments right to control the prescribed usage of controlled substances. It raise the question, if this case is won, will the federal government look at other off label uses of prescription drugs as criminal.

It does seem the government is trying to set a new standard.