Oregon sheds the Schiavo Effect

The only state in the US where assisted suicide is legal can breathe easier about taking a dignified last breath. The US Supreme Court has struck down the Justice Department effort to kill an Oregon law that lets terminal patients ask doctors for lethal drugs.

From the New York Times:

"Since 1998, when the law was enacted, through 2004, a total of 208 people have taken their lives by lethal injection with a physician-prescribed drug, usually a barbiturate. Critics had said Oregon would become a suicide center, with people flying in to end their lives. They also predicted that the law would be unfairly used against uneducated people or those without health insurance or adequate medical choices. In the seven full years since the law has been in effect and records have been kept, more than 60 percent of those who have killed themselves have had some college education, the state reported."

Smarter people know better than to leave a legacy of debt to their heirs and family when the end is evident.