Abstract
When people speak of end-of-life care in Oregon, the first thing that comes to mind for many is the legalization of physician-assisted suicide in 1997.1 The Oregon Death with Dignity Act allows the attending physician of a terminally ill patient, under certain circumstances, to prescribe a lethal dose of medication that the patient then self-administers. The law has been used infrequently with a total of 129 people dying under the Act in the first five years of implementation. This translates to less than one in one thousand deaths in Oregon each year.2 Over the past decade, health care providers in Oregon have been working quietly in other areas to improve the care of the dying. While much work is still needed, Oregon has also had some notable successes. One of these areas relates to the ability of health care providers to systematically document and communicate a patient’s preferences to have or refuse life-sustaining treatments when the person is unable to speak for himself or herself.
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Schmidt, T.A., Hickman, S.E., Tolle, S.W. (2004). Honoring Treatment Preferences Near the End of Life. In: Machado, C., Shewmon, D.A. (eds) Brain Death and Disorders of Consciousness. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 550. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-306-48526-8_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-306-48526-8_23
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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