British think tank: Oregon residents doctor-shop for help with suicide

By Simon Caldwell
10/27/2010
MANCHESTER, England

(CNS) -- A British think tank said a U.S. assisted-suicide law might have created a phenomenon of "doctor-shopping" for physicians willing to ignore safeguards to help healthy people kill themselves.

A report claims that the 1997 Oregon Death With Dignity Act is being abused -- with the help of some physicians -- by people who do not fulfill the criteria of being terminally ill, mentally competent and able to make a free choice.

Called "What is Happening in Oregon?" the report by Living and Dying Well, a group of prominent British medical and legal experts, was sent to British members of Parliament Oct. 25 to counter claims by assisted-suicide campaigners that the Oregon law is a model of effective regulation that should be adopted in the United Kingdom. the rest