Oregon Death with Dignity Act: Do nine years of data validate concerns?

Opposition to the Oregon Death with Dignity Act seems to fall into two separate categories: concern that people from all over the US would flock to Oregon to die and concern that less advantaged groups- for example, women, the poor, and racial/ethnic minorities- would die by physician-assisted suicide at a higher rate than other groups. This paper is an attempt to determine if those concerns have been validated through the examination of nine years of aggregate trend data on those who have died under Oregon's DWDA. Using nine years of aggregate data published annually by the Oregon Department of Human Services, I examine trends in age, race, sex, marital status, education, insurance status, end of life concerns, hospice enrollment, and underlying illness as well as the duration of the physician-patient relationship and the length of time between the PAS request and death. Regression and chi square analyses seem to nullify concerns of DWDA opponents; 292 people have died under the Act since its institution in 1997 and there females, the uninsured, and those who fear pain were not more likely to use the Act than others. Two other findings are noteworthy: first, that females make up a larger proportion of PAS deaths than regular suicides and second, that the DWDA has seemed to launch efforts to improve palliative care.