Oregon Public Broadcasting

A cancer patient from Sequim  has become the first person to use Washington’s new assisted suicide law to hasten her death.  Correspondent Tom Banse reports.

Sixty-six year old Linda Fleming was diagnosed with late stage pancreatic cancer just over a month ago.  She died Thursday night after taking drugs prescribed under the “Death with Dignity” law.

Washington voters approved the law last November and it took effect in March.  The main group behind the measure announced Fleming’s death. 

Compassion and Choices director Rob Miller says the Sequim woman was just the sort of person the law was supposed to help.

Rob Miller: “She’s a person with an incurable disease.  She had a very short life expectancy. She was experiencing uncontrollable pain despite the best efforts of hospice.”

According to the Washington State Department of Health, four other people have requested prescriptions for life-ending drugs. 

Washington and Oregon are the only states that allow assisted suicide.  At least 401 people have used Oregon’s law to end their lives over the past eleven years.