(Oregon Right to Life) — Oregon saw a more than 4% increase in physician-assisted suicide prescriptions in 2025, according to the Oregon Health Authority (OHA)’s 28th annual report on the state’s “Death With Dignity Act” (DWDA). The report indicates an ongoing upward trend in the prescription of lethal drugs as assisted suicide continues to account for about one in every 100 Oregon deaths.
This month, Oregon Health Authority reported that physician-assisted suicide prescriptions increased about 4.6% from the prior year, with 637 prescriptions of lethal drugs reported in 2025 compared with 609 in 2024. The 2024 data then represented a more than 8% increase from 2023.
Though prescriptions rose in 2025, reported deaths ticked downward, with 400 deaths in 2025 compared with 421 in 2024. However, ingestion status for 28% of patients was unknown as of the time of the report. The number of deaths in 2025 included 42 people who had been prescribed the drugs in a previous year.
“Once again, Oregon’s assisted suicide report shows that prescriptions of death-inducing drugs are tragically on the rise,” Oregon Right to Life Executive Director Lois Anderson said. “Last year – instead of being cared for and supported, assured that their lives have inherent value and meaning – 637 vulnerable people were prescribed drugs intended to cause their deaths.”
“This is heartbreaking and wrong. Our elderly, disabled, and medically complex deserve real dignity and compassion, which is shown through love, care, and life-affirming support,” Anderson said. “Legal assisted suicide sends the opposite message: That Oregon believes some lives are simply less worth living.”
Under Oregon’s “Death With Dignity” law, patients must be 18 or older, “capable of making and communicating health care decisions to health care practitioners,” and be “diagnosed with a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months.” Oregon Health Authority has confirmed that patients would qualify for assisted suicide if their condition would, “absent further treatment,” lead to death within six months. In practice, if patients with chronic conditions decide to opt out of continued treatment, they can qualify for assisted suicide under the law.
According to the OHA report, 88% of those who died from assisted suicide in 2025 were over the age of 65. The most common reported underlying condition was cancer (61%). The next most common were neurological disease (14%) and heart disease (11%). The most frequently reported concerns pertaining to the choice of lethal drugs were loss of autonomy (89%), decreasing ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable (89%), and loss of dignity (65%). 30% of patients received an exemption to the state’s 15-day waiting period, up from 29% last year.
Only two patients were referred for psychological or psychiatric evaluation.
“The infinitesimally small number of reported psychological and psychiatric evaluations continues and is deeply concerning,” Anderson said. “No matter their age or condition, a patient’s request for suicide should always trigger a thorough mental health analysis. The failure to provide this basic support for vulnerable patients is unconscionable.”
Deaths under Oregon’s assisted suicide program have risen year over year. In 2023, Oregon saw a sharp 30% rise in DWDA prescriptions and a 20% increase in associated deaths. The data show that spike has been followed by gradual but persistent increases. Patients from out of state now represent a notable percentage of those receiving the lethal prescriptions following Oregon Governor Tina Kotek’s 2023 removal of the state’s residency requirement. 37 people from outside Oregon received DWDA prescriptions last year, representing 6% of the total and an increase from 24 (4%) in 2024.
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The 2025 report comes after lawmakers last year unsuccessfully attempted to expand the state’s assisted suicide law.
During Oregon’s 83rd legislative session, lawmakers considered a bill that would have reduced the 15-day waiting period and allowed non-physicians to prescribe lethal medication.
Pro-life advocates came out strongly against the bill, sending over 700 emails to lawmakers, submitting 174 written pieces of testimony, delivering live testimonies, and appearing at the Capitol in the dozens to demonstrate opposition to further expansions of assisted suicide.
Pro-life Republican Rep. E. Werner Reschke, who represents Oregon’s 55th District, told committee members during a public hearing that “Senate Bill 1003 is a bill with moral significance that compels me to be here,” decrying what he called Oregon’s “culture of death over life.”
SB 1003 ultimately failed to advance out of committee.
To date, 5,520 people have been prescribed lethal drugs since Oregon’s DWDA took effect in 1997, and at least 3,691 people (67%) have died after consuming them, according to the OHA.
