Oregon lawmakers kill starvation bill

Pro-life state legislators in Oregon managed to kill a bill that pro-lifers say would have allowed the starvation and dehydration of dementia patients and those with mental illness. Framed as an update to Oregon's advance directive law, S.B. 494 removed definitions of tube feeding and life support and gave family members, friends, and caregivers the power to remove undefined “life-sustaining procedures” that could include food and water. “Had this bill become law it would have been used to end the lives of innocent Oregonians who are not in the active dying stage but are afflicted with mental illness,” Oregon Right to Life director Gayle Atteberry said. The state Senate passed the bill June 8, and the House sent it to a judiciary committee that ended debate June 2, effectively killing it.

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