Individuals residing in states that outlaw euthanasia, such as Texas, have started traveling to Oregon to gain assistance in their suicide, making the state the first “death tourism” destination in the US.
According to the Daily Mail, Dr. Nicholas Gideonse, the director of End of Life Choices Oregon, recently admitted to assisting a man from Texas with Lou Gehrig’s disease who came to the doctor’s Portland clinic in achieving suicide and said that “for a small number of patients who otherwise qualify or are determined to go through that and who have the energy and the resources … it has started to happen.”
According to Oregon’s official website, the state passed its Death with Dignity Act in 1997, “which allows terminally ill individuals to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medications, expressly prescribed by a physician for that purpose.” The law enabled terminally ill patients expected to die within six months to request fatal drugs from doctors that the patient then takes and self-administers. Read more…