Yesterday, I posted about a Vermont bill that would allow nondoctors to prescribe death. I found out today that Oregon has similar legislation pending that would allow “providers” to lethally prescribe. SB 1003 specifies that “provider” can mean a licensed physician, a licensed physician assistant, or a licensed nurse practitioner. I wouldn’t trust a PA or NP to diagnose me with six months to live. Would you?

That is not a putdown. These valuable medical professionals’ primary roles are to provide generalized care, monitor and manage chronic conditions, and provide wellness services.

But they are not physicians. They receive less education and specialized training as compared with physician-certified specialists like cardiologists, oncologists, nephrologists, or neurologists.

I suspect that the reason for expanding categories of eligible lethal prescribers has to do with the fact that most doctors have no interest in assisted suicide. By allowing NPs and PAs to prescribe lethally, the state increases the availability of hastened death.

The bill would also allow third parties (“the prescribing provider or an expressly identified agent of the patient”) to pick up the patient’s poison from a pharmacy. That means less control over these lethal drugs.

The Oregon bill also would require hospices to disclose on their websites and in patient-information packets whether they participate in assisted suicide:

A hospice program shall publicly disclose its current policy regarding the Oregon Death With Dignity Act, including:
(a) Whether a patient receiving services from the hospice program may elect to end the patient’s life as provided under  the Oregon Death With Dignity Act;
(b) Whether hospice program staff may be present at the time the patient intends to ingest medication to end the patient’s life in accordance with the Oregon Death With Dignity Act; and
(c) Whether the hospice program permits its staff, as a function of the staff’s position with the hospice program, to act as a prescribing provider or consulting provider under the Oregon Death With Dignity Act.

I actually support this provision. Participating in and cooperating with assisted suicide is absolutely contrary to the purpose and mission of hospice care as envisioned by the great humanitarian founder of the hospice movement, Dame Cecily Saunders. Requiring notification will disclose the values of the hospice and enable families and patients who want truly compassionate — which means to “suffer with” — hospice care to determine which facilities to avoid.