"Even if a patient struggled, “who would know?”

By Margaret Dore, Esq.

The initiated measure has no required oversight over administration of the lethal dose.[1] No witness, not even a doctor, is required to be present at the death.[2]

In addition, the drugs used are water and or alcohol soluble, such that they can be injected into a sleeping or restrained person without consent.[3]  Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, puts it this way:
With assisted suicide laws in Washington and Oregon [and with the proposed measure], perpetrators can . . . take a “legal” route, by getting an elder to sign a lethal dose request. Once the prescription is filled, there is no supervision over administration. Even if a patient struggled, “who would know?” (Emphasis added).[4]
Footnotes:

[1]  See the initiated measure in its entirety.
[2]  Id.

[3]  The drugs used include Secobarbital, Pentobarbital and Phenobarbital. See this Oregon government report excerpt (listing these drugs at the top of the page). See also "Secobarbital Sodium Capsules, Drugs.Com, at http://www.drugs.com/pr/seconal-sodium.html; http://www.drugs.com/pro/nembutal.html; and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2977013
[4]  Alex Schadenberg, Letter to the Editor, “Elder abuse a growing problem,” The Advocate, Official Publication of the Idaho State Bar, October 2010, page 14, available at http://www.margaretdore.com/info/October_Letters.pdf