111 terminally ill patients took their own lives in first 6 months of California right-to-die law

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Excerpt

A total of 111 people in California took their own lives using lethal prescriptions during the first six months of a law that allows terminally ill people to request life-ending drugs from their doctors, according to data released Tuesday.

A snapshot of the patients who took advantage of the law mirrors what’s been seen in Oregon, which was the first state to legalize the practice nearly two decades ago. Though California is far more diverse than Oregon, the majority of those who have died under aid-in-dying laws in both states were white, college-educated cancer patients older than 60.

The End of Life Option Act made California the fifth state in the nation to allow patients with less than six months to live to request end-of-life drugs from their doctors.

Physician-assisted deaths made up 6 out of every 10,000 deaths in California between June and December 2016, according to state data. That’s much lower than the 2016 rate in Oregon, where lethal prescriptions accounted for 37 per 10,000 deaths.

But the findings have done little to calm the debate over whether allowing doctors to prescribe lethal medications is acceptable medical practice.

Supporters of the law pointed to data showing that 191 prescriptions were written, but only 111 patients had taken the pills as of the end of December.

Comparing California’s experience to Oregon’s

California, June 2016 — December 2016

59% of those who died using a lethal prescription had cancer.
46% of those who died were male
90% who died were white, 3% Latino and 5% Asian
58% who died had a bachelor’s degree or higher
57% who died had Medicare, Medicaid or another type of government insurance; 31% had private insurance; 4% were uninsured
The rate of lethal prescription deaths was 6 per 10,000 total deaths in the state.

Oregon, January 2016 — December 2016

79% of those who died using a lethal prescription had cancer.
54% of those who died were male
96% who died were white, 1.5% Latino and 1.5% Asian
50% who died had a bachelor’s degree or higher
70% who died had Medicare, Medicaid or another type of government insurance; 30% had private insurance; fewer than 1% were uninsured.
The rate of lethal prescription deaths was 37 per 10,000 total deaths in the state.

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