Oregon Public Broadcasting

Patients are beginning to use Washington’s new Death with Dignity Act the state Department of Health reports having received several of the forms required under the law. Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins reports.

Last November Washington voters overwhelmingly passed the Death with Dignity Law.

It allows terminally ill patients with less than six months to live to request a lethal dose of medication from their doctor. The law went into effect in March.

Now the Washington Department of Health reports it’s received two pharmacy dispensing reports. That suggests two patients have requested and received lethal medication.

The Department has also received several other pieces of paperwork including one confirmation of a written request from a patient to a doctor for a lethal prescription.

This doesn’t mean a patient in Washington has died under the law. It simply means patients are beginning to use the law to obtain the medication that would allow them to hasten their death.

Online:

http://www.doh.wa.gov/dwda/formsreceived.htm