NDY was pleased to have the opportunity to talk about recent assisted suicide court cases during a March 11thwebinar organized by the Patients Rights Action Fund. A recording of that webinar is available HERE.
One of the cases I talked about, Nicholas Gideonse, M.D. vs. Kate Brown, will be the subject of a new PRAF sponsored webinar that I plan to attend. I urge others to consider doing so as well.
The case was brought by a doctor to challenge the residency requirement of the Oregon assisted suicide law. Five years ago, End of Life Choices Oregon had referred a man with cancer to Dr. Nicholas Gideonse, a primary care and hospice doctor, who had already helped many patients use the Oregon law. Although the man lived in Washington state where assisted suicide is legal, he sought to use Oregon’s law.
Nicholas Gideonse, M.D. vs. Kate Brown (filed in Oct. 2021) argued that residency requirements for assisted suicide violate two sections of the U.S. Constitution, one barring state laws that limit the ability of a nonresident to access medical care and one prohibiting state laws that burden interstate commerce.
It’s not really clear whether, with more information and time, the court would have considered it relevant that the patient lived in a state where assisted suicide is legal like Washington or, in contrast, where it’s illegal, such as Idaho.
It’s also not really clear whether the court would have thought twice about the possibility of trains, planes, automobiles and telehealth opening assisted suicide to people living in every state. After all, that would basically get around the 1997 Supreme Court ruling that turned the assisted suicide issue back to the individual states to decide.
What is clear is that, before the court had a chance to substantively consider much of anything, Oregon officials were comfortable entering a settlement agreement with Dr. Gideonse. The agreement precludes any enforcement of their law’s residency requirement and requires the Oregon Health Authority to submit a legislative “concept” to amend the law during the next session.
We already know from the Oregon data that people who are not terminal are getting lethal prescriptions. We already know that the top five reasons for requesting assisted suicide are unaddressed disability-related concerns.
Let’s hope that there’s a way to stop this court case from multiplying by a factor of five the number of older, ill and disabled people who may be pressured into assisted suicide.