Death with Dignity Act

Oregon voters approve Death with Dignity Act, allowing terminally ill people to receive prescriptions for lethal dosages of drugs to end their lives. 

At the close of the twentieth century, the DEA reported that barbiturates represented about 20% of all depressant prescriptions in the United States. Uses ranged from epilepsy treatment to assisted suicide in Oregon. In 1997, Oregon voters approved the Death with Dignity Act, which allows doctors to prescribe lethal dosages of barbiturates to terminally ill people. 

The federal challenge to the law came in the form of a Nov. 6, 2001 directive from Attorney General John Ashcroft. That directive banned the prescription of what the Oregon law calls Death with Dignity drugs. Ashcroft said in the directive that a lethal prescription did not meet the legitimate medical purpose standard in the Controlled Substances Act. 

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