News
Page 4
Street Roots • Nov. 25-Dec. 1,2016
Barbara
Roberts
The former
governor
reflects on
20 years
defending
death with
dignity
BY JOANNE ZUHL
STAFF WRITER
arbara and Frank Roberts were
Oregon’s original power couple. By
1991, Barbara was culminating an
already remarkable political career by
becoming Oregon’s first elected female
governor. Her husband, Frank, was a senior
member of the state Senate and the
Democratic president pro tern.
He was also terminally ill with the cancer
that would take his life in 1993, too soon to
see the landmark Death with Dignity Act he
championed become law. The law allows
terminally-ill Oregonians to end their lives
through the voluntary self-administration of
lethal medications, prescribed by a physician
for that purpose.
Three times Frank Roberts introduced a
death with dignity bill into the State
Legislature and each time it failed to clear
committee. In the fall of 1993, a citizens’
initiative had picked up the banner,
endorsed by Roberts as a promise to her
husband. By November 1994, Oregonians
voted in the Death with Dignity Act, the
first of its kind in the nation.
An injunction followed, but it was lifted in
1997. That year, a ballot measure seeking to
overturn the act was defeated by more than
60 percent of voters. Oregon had spoken.
Challenges came and went, all the way to
the U.S. Supreme Court, but 20 years later,
the law remains intact, serving as a model
and inspiration for legislation across the
country.
On Nov. 15, Washington, D.C.’s city
council passed its own death with dignity
act, joining five other jurisdictions to do so.
In October, Gov. Jerry Brown signed into
law California’s end-of-life bill, making it the
B
PHOTO BY JOE GLODE
Since 1997,1.545 people have
received prescriptions written under
Oregon's Death with Dignity Act. Of
those. 991 patients have died ingesting
the medications. Of the 132 deaths
under the Act in 2015, nearly all - just
over 90 percent - died at home.
___________________________
Source: Oregon Public Health Division, Feb. 4,2016
fifth and largest state to pass similar
legislation..
On Election Day, Colorado became the
sixth, as voters there overwhelming
approved Proposition 106 which legalized
assisted death for terminally ill patients.
In 2017, approximately 20 similar bills are
expected to go before state lawmakers and
voters, which means Roberts has a busy
year ahead. She has championed the cause
whenever called upon, testifying before
lawmakers about the need for end-of-life
autonomy and drawing from her own
experience with the death of her husband.
She has compelled the powers that be to
catch up to the popular public opinion that
supports death-with-dignity options.
In 2002, Roberts authored “Death
Without Denial, Grief Without Apology: A
Guide for Facing Death and Loss.” The book
has become a frequent referral for hospice
workers
Frank’s life and death also inspired
Barbara Coombs Lee, the executive director
of Compassion and Choices Oregon.
Compassion and Choices consults people on
end-of-life care and advocates for more legal
options nationwide. Lee co-authored the
Oregon legislation, and her organization is
the beneficiary of Robert’s 80th birthday
celebration dinner, Dec. 7, at Montgomery
Park in Portland. Tickets are available online
through Eventbrite.com
Together, Lee and Roberts spoke with
Street Roots about the significance and
lasting impact of Oregon’s Death with
Dignity Act.
Joanne Zuhl: You wrote in “Death
Without Denial, Grief Without Apology” that
we are so afraid of death in this culture, so
geared toward medical miracle, we seem to
have lost all sense of perspective. I’d like you to
expand on that and also on the perspective
you’ve gained over time.
Barbara Roberts: My husband had died
just a year and a half before I started writing
the book. And I had found how much people
don’t want to talk about it. They want you to
just get over it, get well, move on, get a life.
They start saying it will be better. They
really are uncomfortable with the whole
subject matter. I was governor and he was a
member of the state senate, and we were
very open about the fact that he had a
terminal diagnosis, and that he wasn’t going
to do any further treatment And we did it
because we thought people should be able
See ROBERTS, page 5