Assisted Suicide in Oregon Lacks Safeguards for Mentally Ill

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
May 6, 2004

Salem, OR (LifeNews.com) -- A doctors group says that the case of the death of a 63 year-old man reveals the lack of proper safeguards associated with legalized assisted suicide in the state of Oregon, the only one to allow the grisly practice. A leading psychologist is presenting the case to a national meeting of the American Psychiatric Association today.

Thoughts of suicide haunted Michael Freeland since his early 20's when his mother shot herself. Following her death, Freeland attempted to take his own life.

In March 2000, Freeland, at the age of 62, was diagnosed with non-small-cell lung cancer.

One month later, Freeland called the offices of Physicians for Compassionate Care, a pro-life doctors group, tearfully requesting a suicide. Volunteer Cathy Hamilton encouraged Freeland to keep living and offered to help him find doctors who would treat his depression and pain.

Freeland's physician, Dr. Peter Reagan, prescribed him Zoloft for depression. In early 2001, Dr. Reagan gave Freeland a lethal dose of the drug, even though Freeland was not "terminally ill," as supposedly required by the Oregon assisted suicide law.

Meanwhile, in January 2003, Freeland was hospitalized for depression and suicidal thoughts. According to PCC, the discharge report, issued on January 30, 2002 said, "The guns are now out of the house, which resolves the major safety issue." Yet, it also indicated, "He keeps this [the overdose] safely at home."

The next day, the same psychologist who wrote the discharge report told a judge that Freeland was incompetent to make major medical decisions.

Two weeks before his death, Dr. Gregory Hamilton and his wife "found Freeland alone, in pain, dehydrated, suffering from painful constipation, confused, and afraid to take his pain medication," a PCC report explains.

Freeland was ready to take the overdose that his doctor had prescribed to him because of pain he was suffering. He said Dr. Reagan had offered to sit with him while he took the overdose.

However, Freeland had a change of heart and, at Dr. Hamilton's encouragement, took pain medication instead and began to receive palliative care.

In December 2002, Freeland died comfortably without the use of the assisted suicide drugs, having just reconciled with his daughter.

At the APA meeting, Dr. Hamilton, a distinguished APA fellow and a Portland psychiatrist, will brief members on the Freeland case.

Hamilton says the case "demonstrates that allowing assisted suicide contributes to substandard medical care and endangers seriously ill patients, particularly those with a history of pre-existing mental illness."

"Although Freeland did not take the overdose, his case demonstrates that there are no effective safeguards against the mentally ill being given assisted-suicide in Oregon," Hamilton added.

Related web sites:
Physicians for Compassionate Care - http://www.pccef.org