Patient’s Recovery Convinces Oregon Doctor to Fight Euthanasia Laws

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Kenneth Stevens MD, Jeanette Hall

When American doctor Kenneth Stevens heard about Victoria’s plan to introduce assisted dying for the terminally ill he couldn’t help but recall the story of his ­patient Jeanette Hall.

Hall, then 55, came to Stevens in 2000 after being diagnosed with inoperable colon cancer in Portland, Oregon, a state that in 1997 introduced laws enabling doctors to prescribe fatal pills to the terminally ill.

In Oregon, Other Suicides Have Increased with the Legalization of Physician-Assisted Suicide

By Margaret K. Dore, Esq.

Since the passage of Oregon’s law allowing physician-assisted suicide, other suicides in Oregon have steadily increased. This is consistent with a suicide contagion in which the legalization of physician-assisted suicides has encouraged other suicides. In Oregon, the financial and emotional impacts of suicide on family members and the broader community are devastating and long-lasting.[1]

Police consider charging mother in Bend suicide

Law enforcement officials are investigating a mother’s role in the 2016 suicide of her daughter in a Bend motel room. Police believe probable cause exists to charge Linda Jonsson with second-degree manslaughter.

Sonja Mae Jonsson, 42, of Depoe Bay, committed suicide Aug. 25, swallowing a large quantity of prescription medication. Her mother, Linda Jonsson, 67, had been staying in the room with her and called authorities after her daughter died.

Reporter: 541-633-2162, mhawryluk@bendbulletin.com

See more at: http://www.bendbulletin.com/newsroomstafflist/5356986-151/police-consider-charging-mother-in-bend-suicide#sthash.Xq9XS5M8.dpuf