CHOOSING THEIR TIME.

This article discusses the issue of assisted suicide, and the efforts of the right-to-die movement to give the terminally ill the option of dying at the time of their own choosing. Oregon's Death with Dignity Act, twice approved in statewide voter referendums, is the only statute in the U.S. allowing doctors to write lethal prescriptions for terminally ill patients who want to control the time and place of their death. The very existence of the law, however, has focused Oregon doctors' attention on end-of-life care, spurring them to take extra training in complex pain management and encouraging them to refer patients to hospice care earlier than before. Despite the comparative ease with which the suicide statute has become a part of mainstream medical care in Oregon, many patients seeking lethal drugs still have to shop for a doctor. A growing number of doctors seem willing to lend a hand in bringing lives to a close--and not all of those physicians are in Oregon. Many doctors admit to being willing to administer so-called terminal sedation, raising drug levels high enough to induce a fatal coma. Others simply increase morphine doses until the patient stops breathing.