OREGON STATE REP TO INTRODUCE HEMLOCK SOCIETY'S NAZI [sic] LETHAL INJECTION BILL CLUB OF L

OREGON STATE REP TO INTRODUCE HEMLOCK SOCIETY'S NAZI [sic] LETHAL
INJECTION BILL

CLUB OF LIFE
by Linda Everett
Some Oregon legislators
think they have found the final
solution for shrinking Oregon's state
budget. Democratic Senator Frank
Roberts of Portland has announced that
he will introduce a bill calling for
physician-assisted suicide: a doctor
would be empowered to administer lethal
injections to the sick and elderly.
Roberts predicted that his bill would
win approval in the Senate when it is
introduced next term. He was less sure
of its response in the House. 
     The Democrat's action saved the
Hemlock Society of Oregon the effort of
collecting the 65,000 signatures needed
to place its ``Death With Dignity Act''
on the 1990 ballot. Hemlock's Henry
Brod announced that the Eugene-based
organization would rescind its
initiative, because ``interested
parties'' in the legislature are already
planning to introduce its bill. 
	Hemlock's bill is designed to go
beyond Oregon's two new recent health
care laws in cost-cutting. Oregon
already boasts the nation's first
health care rationing law, which
eliminates costly life-saving or
life-prolonging procedures. Another new
law lets hospitals, physicians, and
families starve patients to death,
whether they ask for it or not. 
	Four months ago, the national
Hemlock Society announced plans to
launch initiatives to decriminalize
physician-assisted euthanasia in three
states. The aim was to utilize the
initiative process to have their law
reform placed on the 1990 Oregon
ballot; on the Washington State ballot
by 1991; and on the 1992 ballot in
California. Florida is also a
possibility in 1992. 
	Henry Brod, Ph.D., Oregon chapter
president, admitted in a recent chapter
meeting that he (like Hemlock's founder,
Derek Humphry) helped kill his wife.
Brod described in a Hemlock newsletter
his method for obtaining lethal drugs
for ``self-deliverance.'' In ``My Hunt
For Drugs In Mexico,'' Brod discussed
his trip to Mexico, where the drugs are
available without prescription. Less
than a year later, Brod's sick wife,
Barbara, was dead, and he had moved to
Oregon. 
     The Club of Life confronted
Hemlock's president and CEO, Derek
Humphry, at a recent poorly attended
Dallas meeting. Humphry promised there
would be ``no slippery slopes'' with
his initiative--all killings would be
by doctors in hospitals. But when asked
if he intended to have special
euthanasia clinics to kill people, like
the abortion clinics are used to kill
babies [sic], Humphry snapped: ``Yes, what's
wrong with that?''