Saturday, November 1, 2025

Eastern Oregon Attempting to Break Away from State

Epoch Times 

Unbeknownst to most Americans, the eastern part of Oregon is in the process of attempting to break away from the state.

After many years of being fed up with the policies coming out of Portland, over a third of the counties in Oregon have voted to secede. Specifically, they voted to leave Oregon and join the state of Idaho. This is part of a growing regional shift known as the “Greater Idaho” movement.

What’s truly interesting about this particular movement is that it might actually succeed.

Tuesday, October 7, 2025

Trump Defies Federal Court, Sends 300 California National Guard Troops to Portland, Oregon: ‘On Their Way There Now’

President Trump on Sunday deployed 300 California National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon defying a federal order blocking the move – as Golden State Gov. Gavin Newsom vowed to sue in response.

“After a federal court blocked his attempt to federalize the Oregon National Guard, Donald Trump is deploying 300 California National Guard personnel into Oregon,” Newson said in a post on X, later calling the order “un-American.”

“They are on their way there now. We are taking this fight back to court. The public cannot stay silent in the face of such reckless and authoritarian conduct by the President of the United States.”

Newsom’s fiery threat comes hours after a federal judge temporarily halted the Trump administration from sending 200 Oregon National Guard troops to the “war ravaged” city that has been under siege by anti-ICE agitators for more than 100 straight days. – New York Post

Our Take: A federal judge in Oregon said President Trump can’t deploy the Oregon National Guard to Portland, so the President is sending California National Guard instead.

Friday, March 28, 2025

Reported Assisted Suicide Deaths Declined, But Do All Doctors Report?

Prescriptions for life-ending medications under Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act (DWDA) increased between 2023 and 2024, while the number of deaths went down, according to new Oregon Health Authority (OHA) data.

According to OHA’s 27th annual report on the DWDA, the number of prescriptions written for lethal medications increased 8.2%, from 561 to 607; deaths from ingestion of lethal doses of DWDA medications dropped about 2.6%, from 386 to 376.

The 2024 data represent a significant change from 2023, when prescriptions increased about 29%, driven largely by a 2023 amendment to the DWDA that removed the state residency requirement. Deaths from ingesting the lethal medications increased that year by about 20%.

In 2024, 23 prescription recipients (4%) lived outside of Oregon, a slight decrease from 29 (5%) in 2023.

Sunday, March 9, 2025

"Terminal Illness," What Does it Mean?

By Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.  Original publication 03/06/25.

I recently spoke at the British parliament about the experience with assisted suicide in America. The British parliament is currently debating the legalization of assisted suicide. The British assisted suicide bill, that is sponsored by Kim Leadbeater, is similar to an American style assisted suicide bill. 

While in England, I had the opportunity to visit with a physician who practises palliative medicine. She told me about a meeting with a patient and her family to explain that the patient has a terminal condition but she is not terminally ill.

In 2011, Dr Kenneth Stevens [pictured above], a long time radiation oncologist in Oregon, wrote an excellent article titled: "Terminal Illness: What does it mean?" In his article Dr Stevens writes about several of his patients who were diagnosed with a terminal illness.

The first story was a patient, Mr Jones, who was diagnosed with lung cancer that had spread to his brain. Dr Stevens explains:

He was not having any breathing problems and, except for headaches, the tumors in his brain were not causing any neurological or mental problems. Yet, his doctor had told him and his wife that he was "terminal."

Saturday, February 22, 2025

Proposed Bill Would Allow Non-Physicians to Legally Participate in Assisted Suicide & Euthanasia

By Leslie Wolfgang | February 18, 2025, 12:53pm 

An Oregon bill would expand the state’s current law to permit physician assistants and nurse practitioners to prescribe “medication” to help a person to commit suicide. 

Senate Bill 1003 changes the term “attending physician” to “prescribing provider,” and “consulting physician” to “consulting provider.” The term “provider” would be defined as a physician, physician assistant, or nurse practitioner under Oregon law. This bill represents the first time that non-physicians would be authorized to assist the killing of a person in the United States.  

Nurses participate in the euthanasia and assisted suicide of persons in Canada, where the country’s “Medical Assistance In Dying” (MAiD) rates are already high and continuing to increase. According to 2023 statistics, these practitioner-assisted killings account for 4.7%, or 1 in 20 deaths, in Canada.

In the United States, assisted suicide organizations continually seek its expansion, yet the U.S. numbers aren’t yet even close to Canada’s; assisted suicide rates in California in 2023 were a mild 0.3% of the population comparatively. 

Oregon is not the only state with an expansion bill this year. Vermont also has a bill to expand its assisted suicide law. According to Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, the “weak link” for assisted suicide activists is that “very few doctors” are willing to be involved with assisted suicide, and “[b]y adding physician assistants and nurse practitioners they will increase the number of providers who are willing to be involved with killing.

Monday, March 4, 2024

24 Years Ago, Jeanette Hall Had Terminal Cancer and Wanted Assisted Suicide.

By Alex Schadenberg , material contributed by Margaret Dore

I was speaking this weekend in Oregon and Dr Kenneth Stevens gave us an incredible gift by bring Jeanette Hall to the event.

(Picture: Alex Schadenberg, Jeanette Hall, Kenneth Stevens, Wesley Smith)

Oregon's assisted suicide law came into effect in 1998. In 2000, Jeanette Hall had cancer and she was give six to 12 months to live. Jeanette made a settled decision to use Oregon's assisted suicide law in lieu of being treated for cancer. Her doctor, Kenneth Stevens, who opposed assisted suicide, thought that her chances with treatment were good. Over several weeks, he stalled her request for assisted suicide and finally convinced her to be treated for cancer.

Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Declaration of Jeanette Hall

Reformatted for this site 

I, JEANETTE HALL, declare as follows:

1. I live in Oregon where assisted suicide is legal. Our law was enacted in 1997 via a ballot measure that I voted for.

2. In 2000, I was diagnosed with cancer and told that I had 6 months to a year to live. I knew that our law had passed, but I didn’t know exactly how to go about doing it. I tried to ask my doctor, Kenneth Stevens MD, but he didn’t really answer me. In hindsight, he was stalling me.

3. I did not want to suffer. I wanted to do our law and I wanted Dr. Stevens to help me. Instead, he encouraged me to not give up and ultimately I decided to fight the cancer. I had both chemotherapy and radiation. I am happy to be alive!

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

Twenty-Three Years Later: Oregon's Death with Dignity Act

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ad/Oregon_State_Capitol_rotunda.jpgBy Margaret Dore, Esq.

This article is based on a legal analysis I wrote for a case in South Africa. I hope that you find it helpful. To read my original analysis, please click herehere and here.

I.   OVERVIEW

Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act was passed by a ballot measure in 1994 and went into effect in 1997.[1] The Act had been and is also currently promoted as a type of voluntary physician-assisted suicide.[2] The Act, in fact, also allows euthanasia, on both a voluntary and involuntary basis. 

Saturday, March 28, 2020

New CDC Data Shows Suicide Was Leading Cause of Death Among Oregon Youth in 2018

Note: Oregon's suicide rate began rising after physician-assisted suicide became legal in 1997. This is "the elephant in the living room," not mentioned by the article below. 

To learn more about suicide contagion in Oregon, click here. To view the article below in its entirety, click here

Salem, Ore. -- In February the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data showing that suicide was the leading cause of death among Oregon youth ages 10 to 24 in 2018, up from the second leading cause of death in 2017. Oregon is now ranked 11th highest in the nation for youth suicide death rates (up from 17th in 2017).

Sunday, August 19, 2018

Legal Assisted Suicide Encourages Other Suicide

I am an attorney and president of Choice is an Illusion, a 501(c)(4) non-profit. Formed in 2010, Choice is an Illusion fights against assisted suicide and euthanasia throughout the United States and in other countries.
David Grube’s Aug. 5 guest commentary in The Star said Oregon’s suicide rates “overall have gone down ... since its Death with Dignity Act [legalizing assisted suicide] went into effect in 1997.” I disagree with this claim.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Vital Signs” website, Oregon’s suicide rate went up 28.2 percent from 1999 to 2016. 
Legal assisted suicide encourages other suicide. Don’t be fooled.*
Margaret Dore
*To learn more about suicide contagion, click here.

Friday, June 8, 2018

An Open Letter to the Center for Disease Control

Thank you for your press release regarding increased suicide rates in the US. Please consider the following factors not mentioned in the release.

1. The release discusses rising suicide rates begining in 1999. Oregon's assisted suicide law, legitimizing and encouraging suicide, had gone into effect just two years prior, in late 1997.

Local media then glorified assisted suicide deaths, for example, of Lovelle Svart, who was filmed taking the lethal dose and then dying at a suicide party. Indeed, local media encouraged readers to both listen and watch as Ms. Svart drank the lethal dose.

Tuesday, January 16, 2018

Oregon Assisted Suicide/Euthanasia Law Applies to Diabetes

The article below leaves out that "diabetes mellitus" (diabetes) is listed in Oregon's annual reports as an "underlying illness" sufficient for death under Oregon's assisted suicide/euthanasia law.

Click here to view a declaration by Oregon doctor, William Toffler, explaining why this is true. Click here to view the report by Fabian Stahle, quoted below.

Diabetics Eligible For Assisted Suicide &  in Oregon, State Official Say 

By Bradford Richardson - The Washington Times - January 11, 2018

Friday, November 10, 2017

Patient’s Recovery Convinces Oregon Doctor to Fight Euthanasia Laws

For a pdf version, click here, to see article as published, click here.

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.

Saturday, August 19, 2017

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]

Tuesday, June 6, 2017

Police consider charging mother in Bend suicide

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Nancy Valko on Oregon: What hides in the dark?

"No other area of medical practice-even lethal injection-is allowed such secrecy and immunity." Nancy Valko, RN


"What hides in
 the dark?"
Edited by Margaret Dore, Esq., MBA

Note two provisions in Oregon's law:
“The Health Services shall make rules to facilitate the collection of information regarding compliance with ORS 127.800 to 127.897. Except as otherwise required by law, the information collected shall not be a public record and may not be made available for inspection by the public.” (Only an “an annual statistical report of information” is made public.) (Emphasis added.)
And 
No person shall be subject to civil or criminal liability or professional disciplinary action for participating in good faith compliance with ORS 127.800 to 127.897. ” (Emphasis added.)
There is also no requirement that the doctor or anyone else witness or even be present at the lethal overdose.


But why are the activists and  lawyers who write these laws not challenged when they purposely omit  the stringent documentation and oversight required for any other medical intervention by relying on doctors’ self-reporting the process while also granting these doctors virtual immunity from any legal, civil or professional liability for coercion, complications, abuse etc.?

One answer is that this allows the media and even doctors like Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel (one of the architects of Obamacare) to declare:
Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are increasingly being legalized, remain relatively rare, and primarily involve patients with cancer. Existing data do not indicate widespread abuse of these practices. (Emphasis added).[1]
The second answer is that these provisions allow assisted suicide doctors  (who obviously have more in common with the infamous Dr. Jack Kevorkian than the iconic Marcus Welby, MD of the 1970s)  to privatize the death and thus prevent any real investigation, followup or even serious medical research as well as allowing the coverup of any problems.

Apparently, nothing can be allowed to interfere with the carefully manufactured image of a kindly doctor helping a patient in excruciating pain to have a quick painless demise.

No other area of medical practice-even lethal injection execution-is allowed such secrecy and immunity.

Nancy Valko, RN
Legislatures and the public need to know and challenge these outrageous provisions as well as being informed about the personal and societal dangers of assisted suicide itself. We must demand truth, transparency and accountability, especially when life and death are at stake.

https://nancyvalko.com/2016/10/05/why-should-physician-assisted-suicide-laws-grant-special-privileges/

Monday, August 1, 2016

Oregon: Jury awards$3 million to fired nurse who complained of 'rushing patients through' to save money

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2015/09/jury_awards_3_million_to_legac.html


By Aimee Green

A Portland jury on Friday awared a nurse more than $3 million -- agreeing that she was wrongfully terminated by Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center after she complained to management that cost cutting measures were jeopardizing patient care. Registered nurse Linda Boly said Saturday that she felt vindicated by the verdict. She hopes it sends a "big message" to Legacy
Health System that "rushing patients through" the process endangers them. . . .

To read the rest of the article, click here.

Tuesday, July 19, 2016

Lawsuit alleges Kaiser anesthesiologists told to skimp on anesthesia, rush patients through, save money

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2016/07/lawsuit_kaiser_anesthesiologis.html

A former Kaiser Permanente anesthesiologist has filed a $9 million lawsuit against the health organization, claiming he was fired after he repeatedly complained that cost-cutting measures were jeopardizing the safety of patients in the Portland area.

Among those measures was an August 2014 mandate from higher-ups that anesthesiologists reduce the amount of knock-out or anti-anxiety meds they give surgery patients so the patients would wake up sooner and be discharged as soon as possible, according to a lawsuit filed by Dr. Erik Franck last week in Multnomah County Circuit Court.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Charles Bentz, MD: Oregon Hospice Not Safe After Assisted Suicide Legalization

Dear Editor:

I read William Clarke’s guest column with interest, as it addresses both assisted suicide and hospice care. (“Don’t deny ‘death with dignity while improving hospice care,” updated 03/02/16).  I am a doctor in Oregon where assisted suicide has been legal since 1997. Since then, I have observed a corruption of Oregon’s medical profession to devalue patients, especially regarding end-of-life care, such as hospice, which is no longer safe.

Patients, generally, are now starting to fear hospice and medical providers such as myself and my colleagues are now avoiding this particular hospice program.  In my opinion, this corruption of the role of hospice can be directly linked to the practice of physician-assisted suicide here in Oregon.  The American Medical Association, Ethics Opinion 2.211, states:
Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks.
Unfortunately, here in Oregon, this is prediction is coming true. Keep medicine safe. Tell your legislators to keep assisted-suicide out of Montana.

Charles J. Bentz MD, FACP
Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine,
Division of General Medicine and Geriatrics
Oregon Health & Sciences University
Fanno Creek Clinic
2400 SW Vermont Street
Portland, OR 97219

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Media Advisory: Disability Groups Respond to Compassion and Choices’ Advocacy for Assisted Suicide Legislation in Connection With Brittany Maynard’s Tragic Illness

http://www.notdeadyet.org/2014/10/media-advisory-disability-groups-respond-to-compassion-and-choices-advocacy-for-assisted-suicide-legislation-in-connection-with-brittany-maynards-tragic-illness.html



[Editor's Note: A PDF formatted version of this Media Advisory is available on PRWeb here, along with an attached flyer developed by a coalition of groups that oppose legalization of assisted suicide.]
Response from Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, Not Dead Yet and Second Thoughts:
“Once again, Compassion & Choices, formerly the Hemlock Society, is pushing legalization of assisted suicide by exploiting an individual terminal prognosis. Disability advocates are deeply sympathetic to Brittany Maynard, and all people suffering a terminal, serious or chronic illness. Legalization of assisted suicide often looks acceptable when the focus is solely on an individual.