e activities of physicians performing such services for patients, and to ensure that informed consent from the patient (who is mentally capable of making such a decision) is obtained before any action is taken. The law states, for example, that initiating a written request for life-ending medication must be as follows:
An adult who is capable, is a resident of Oregon, and has been determined by the attending physician and consulting physician to be suffering from a terminal disease, and who has voluntarily expressed his or her wish to die, may make a written request for medication for the purpose of ending his or her life in a humane and dignified manner in accordance with ORS 127.800 to 127.897.
(2) No person shall qualify under the provisions of ORS 127.800 to 127.897 solely because of age or disability. [1995 c.3 s.2.01; 1999 c.423 s.2] (Oregon Department of Human Services, 2005, p. 3).
As described by Kitchen (2005), the Oregon law bans PAS for the mentally disabled and any individual deemed unable to make such a decision. It also serves to prevent physicians and other health caregivers from deciding autonomously that a patient should be euthanized. A major concern expressed by opponents of this law is that it opens the way to a sli
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