Oregon Health Authority

Emergency Messages as of 12:48 PM, Thu. Apr 2

No information currently posted.

Subscribe to receive FlashAlert messages from Oregon Health Authority.

Manage my existing Subscription

News Release

Report: Death With Dignity Act Prescriptions Continued Rise In 2025 - 04/02/26

April 2, 2026

 

Media Contact: Jonathan Modie, PHD.Communications@oha.oregon.gov 

 

Report: Death with Dignity Act prescriptions continued rise in 2025 

 

PORTLAND, Ore. — Prescriptions for life-ending medications by participants in Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act (DWDA) continue a steady increase, new Oregon Health Authority (OHA) data show.  

 

The number of prescriptions written for lethal medications increased about 5%, from 609 to 637, according to OHA’s 28th annual report on the DWDA. The increase was nowhere near as dramatic as in 2023, when prescriptions jumped about 29%, largely spurred by a 2023 legislative amendment to the Act that removed a state residency requirement. 

 

Numbers of deaths from ingesting lethal doses of DWDA drugs also have stayed on an upward trajectory since Oregon began reporting data on participation in the Act in 1998. The annual report shows that between 2024 and 2025, DWDA deaths dropped about 5%, from 421 to 400, although the number of 2025 deaths is likely to go up over the next year – and may exceed 2024’s death count – as new death certificates arrive and are analyzed, OHA health officials said. 

 

“What we’ve been seeing over the last several years is a steady overall increase in prescriptions and deaths among Death with Dignity Act participants,” said Tom Jeanne, M.D., MPH, deputy state health officer and epidemiologist at OHA’s Public Health Division, which collects information on compliance with the Act and issues the annual report. 

 

According to the report, 24 (6%) of the 400 DWDA patients who died in 2025 had outlived their prognosis—that is, they lived more than six months after receiving their prescription. A diagnosis of a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months is among criteria for participating in the Act, along with being 18 or older, and capable of making and communicating one’s own health care decisions.  

 

In 2025, 37 prescription recipients (6%) lived outside Oregon, an increase from 24 (4%) in 2024. 

 

Participant characteristics are generally consistent with previous years. As in prior years, participants were more likely to be 65 and older (88%) and white (94%), and half had a bachelor’s degree or higher (50%). The most common health diagnosis among participants was cancer (61%), followed by neurological disease (14%) and heart disease (11%).  

 

Most patients died at home (80%), and most were enrolled in hospice care (92%). Excluding unknown cases, all patients had some form of health insurance. The percentage of patients with private insurance (22%) and those with Medicare or Medicaid insurance (79%) were unchanged from 2024. 

 

As in previous years, the three most frequently reported end‐of‐life concerns were loss of autonomy (89%), decreasing ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable (89%), and loss of dignity (65%). 

 

OHA made no referrals of prescribing physicians to the Oregon Medical Board for failure to comply with DWDA reporting requirements in 2025. 

 

The DWDA was enacted in Oregon on Oct. 27, 1997. The Act allows terminally ill individuals to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medications, expressly prescribed by a physician for that purpose. The law requires OHA to collect information about the patients and physicians who participate, and to publish an annual statistical report. 

 

### 

Report: Death With Dignity Act Prescriptions Continued Rise In 2025 - 04/02/26

April 2, 2026

 

Media Contact: Jonathan Modie, PHD.Communications@oha.oregon.gov 

 

Report: Death with Dignity Act prescriptions continued rise in 2025 

 

PORTLAND, Ore. — Prescriptions for life-ending medications by participants in Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act (DWDA) continue a steady increase, new Oregon Health Authority (OHA) data show.  

 

The number of prescriptions written for lethal medications increased about 5%, from 609 to 637, according to OHA’s 28th annual report on the DWDA. The increase was nowhere near as dramatic as in 2023, when prescriptions jumped about 29%, largely spurred by a 2023 legislative amendment to the Act that removed a state residency requirement. 

 

Numbers of deaths from ingesting lethal doses of DWDA drugs also have stayed on an upward trajectory since Oregon began reporting data on participation in the Act in 1998. The annual report shows that between 2024 and 2025, DWDA deaths dropped about 5%, from 421 to 400, although the number of 2025 deaths is likely to go up over the next year – and may exceed 2024’s death count – as new death certificates arrive and are analyzed, OHA health officials said. 

 

“What we’ve been seeing over the last several years is a steady overall increase in prescriptions and deaths among Death with Dignity Act participants,” said Tom Jeanne, M.D., MPH, deputy state health officer and epidemiologist at OHA’s Public Health Division, which collects information on compliance with the Act and issues the annual report. 

 

According to the report, 24 (6%) of the 400 DWDA patients who died in 2025 had outlived their prognosis—that is, they lived more than six months after receiving their prescription. A diagnosis of a terminal illness that will lead to death within six months is among criteria for participating in the Act, along with being 18 or older, and capable of making and communicating one’s own health care decisions.  

 

In 2025, 37 prescription recipients (6%) lived outside Oregon, an increase from 24 (4%) in 2024. 

 

Participant characteristics are generally consistent with previous years. As in prior years, participants were more likely to be 65 and older (88%) and white (94%), and half had a bachelor’s degree or higher (50%). The most common health diagnosis among participants was cancer (61%), followed by neurological disease (14%) and heart disease (11%).  

 

Most patients died at home (80%), and most were enrolled in hospice care (92%). Excluding unknown cases, all patients had some form of health insurance. The percentage of patients with private insurance (22%) and those with Medicare or Medicaid insurance (79%) were unchanged from 2024. 

 

As in previous years, the three most frequently reported end‐of‐life concerns were loss of autonomy (89%), decreasing ability to participate in activities that made life enjoyable (89%), and loss of dignity (65%). 

 

OHA made no referrals of prescribing physicians to the Oregon Medical Board for failure to comply with DWDA reporting requirements in 2025. 

 

The DWDA was enacted in Oregon on Oct. 27, 1997. The Act allows terminally ill individuals to end their lives through the voluntary self-administration of lethal medications, expressly prescribed by a physician for that purpose. The law requires OHA to collect information about the patients and physicians who participate, and to publish an annual statistical report. 

 

###