Oregon becomes America's first 'death tourism' destination for the terminally ... trends now

Oregon has become America's first 'death tourism' destination, where terminally ill people from Texas and other states that have outlawed assisted suicide have started travelling to get their hands on a deadly cocktail of drugs to end their lives, DailyMail.com can reveal.

In the liberal bastion Portland, at least one clinic has started receiving out-of-staters who have less than six months to live and meet the other strict requirements of the state's Death with Dignity (DWD) law.

Dr Nicholas Gideonse, the director of End of Life Choices Oregon, recently told a panel that he was advising terminally ill non-residents on travelling to Oregon to end their lives, despite a legal gray area. 

Dr Gideonse, an advocate of 'magic mushroom' therapy, said he was helping a Texan man suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease and a hospice patient on the East Coast, but added that there were not yet 'tons of people coming from all over'.

'But for a small number of patients who otherwise qualify or are determined to go through that and who have the energy and the resources … it has started to happen,' he said. 

Out-of-state residents must be able to spend at least 15 days in Oregon to process the paperwork, which requires sign-offs from two doctors and witnesses, before administering the fatal dose themselves, says the clinic's website.

Dr Gideonse and the clinic operate in a legal gray zone — the state last year agreed to extend access to doctor-assisted suicide to out-of-staters, but this is not expected to be codified into law until later this year.

But, America's first 'death tourism' destination throws up tough legal questions for family members who may help a loved one reach Oregon from a prohibitionist state. They could face arrest or even be prosecuted in their home state as a result.

For critics, Oregon's nascent 'death tourism' industry, and efforts to create another in Vermont, show how the US is on a slippery slope to following in Canada's footsteps — where lax rules have allowed people with so little as hearing loss to be euthanized.

While US assisted suicide rules are comparatively strict and help some desperately sick people end their agony, critics say they also devalue human life and make deadly drugs a solution for the infirm, disabled and even those who are cash-strapped or feel like a burden.

Jonathan Modie, a spokesman for Oregon Health Authority, said the state stopped enforcing the residency requirement last March, but that he was not aware of any out-of staters travelling to use Oregon's DWD law so far.

Matt Vallière, executive director of the Patients Rights Action Fund, a campaign group, said America's medical aid-in-dying (MAiD) rules were already 'flimsy and easy to circumvent' and that allowing suicide tourism deepened the problems of a flawed system.

'You end up in this Wild West scenario where people take the drugs back to their home states, and there are a lot more questions than there are answers about what would happen after that,' Vallière said.

Diane Coleman, president of Not Dead Yet, another campaign group, said the clinic and Oregon officials were bypassing laws in other states, where lawmakers had decided against having their own assisted suicide rules.

'Many view these laws as a danger to people with serious illnesses, chronic conditions and significant disabilities in our cost-conscious healthcare system,' Coleman told said.

Oregon became the first US state to allow physician-assisted suicide in 1997, allowing terminally ill adult Oregonians, with less than six months left to live, to ask doctors for a fatal dose of drugs they then administer themselves, typically at home.

In 2021, the most recent year for which data are available, doctors prescribed 383 fatal drug doses and 238 people ended their lives — mostly white people aged 65 and above suffering from cancer or diseases of the brain or heart.