As of Dec. 1, the Oregon health plan provides state funds for diagnostic and counseling sessions to verify the desire for suicide. And, of course, the lethal drugs to fulfill that desire will be free. State funds for this act of extreme compassion will be segregated from federal Medicaid money because Congress has not yet permitted death to be subsidized under Medicaid. Despite the recent defeat in Michigan of an assisted-suicide proposal, other states are likely eventually to allow doctors to provide patients the means to dispose of themselves.
Many doctors agree.
Some are neutral, like the Oregon Medical Association. This group, created by then-Gov. Mario Cuomo, consists of lawyers, physicians and an ecumenical roster of religious leaders. The risks would be most severe for those who are elderly, poor, socially disadvantaged, or without access to good medical care. In the sweepingly compassionate new world ahead, I would not be surprised if Oregon became the first state to legalize the right of physicians to directly kill a patient.