All people with terminal conditions have a variety of end-of-life options, including:

-Discontinuing aggressive and unhelpful medical treatment

-Hospice and palliative care.

-Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking (VSED)

-Palliative sedation

-Oregon Death With Dignity Act

 

People should make these difficult decisions in consultation with their families and physicians.  We do our best to support any legal end-of-life choices.

 

The Oregon Death With Dignity Act (also see FAQ) was passed in 1997 and upheld by the US Supreme Court in 2006.  It gives people the right to end their lives through voluntary self-administration of lethal medications prescribed by a physician.  The previous residency requirement was ended in 2022 as the result of a court case.

 

In order to help facilitate the widest range of end-of-life choices possible, we have established a Visitor Room in our facility.  Making use of this room would avoid damaging delays caused by transportation.  It could also avoid delays in pronouncement of legal death, a common problem in brain preservation.