Portland, Ore., Feb 26, 2016 / 06:01 am
Requests for physician-assisted suicide in Oregon have almost doubled annually since 2013, records for the state's public health authority show.
"What's happened in America – and particularly in Oregon – is that we are changing absolute values, and then replacing it with personal choice," Gayle Atteberry, executive director of Oregon Right to Life, told CNA of the rise in requests for lethal prescriptions.
According to data published by the Oregon Public Health Division earlier in February, there were 218 lethal prescriptions written there in 2015, a sharp increase from 155 in the previous year, and 121 in 2013.
Although the average yearly increase in prescriptions was 12 percent, in 2014-15 it was 24 percent.