Oregon Ballot Measure 16 (1994)
Measure 16 of 1994 established the U.S. state of Oregon's Death with Dignity Act (ORS 127.800-995), which legalizes physician-assisted suicide with certain restrictions. Passage of this initiative made Oregon the first U.S. state and one of the first jurisdictions in the world to permit some terminally ill patients to determine the time of their own death.
The measure was approved in the November 8, 1994 general election. 627,980 votes (51.3%) were cast in favor, 596,018 votes (48.7%) against. Measure 51, referred in the wake of Washington v. Glucksberg by the state legislature in November, 1997, sought to repeal the Death with Dignity act, but was rejected by 60% of voters. The act was challenged by the George W. Bush administration, but was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in Gonzales v. Oregon in 2006.
Read more about Oregon Ballot Measure 16 (1994): The Law, Analysis of Impact, Attempts To Repeal, Documentary Film
Famous quotes containing the words oregon, ballot and/or measure:
“In another year I’ll have enough money saved. Then I’m gonna go back to my hometown in Oregon and I’m gonna build a house for my mother and myself. And join the country club and take up golf. And I’ll meet the proper man with the proper position. And I’ll make a proper wife who can run a proper home and raise proper children. And I’ll be happy, because when you’re proper, you’re safe.”
—Daniel Taradash (b. 1913)
“Perhaps the fact that I am not a Radical or a believer in the all powerful ballot for women to right her wrongs and that I do not scorn womanly duties, but claim it as a privilege to clean up and sort of supervise the room and sew things, etc., is winning me stronger allies than anything else.”
—Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842–1911)
“The soul is no longer honored as it once was, but it still keeps appetite from being the measure of all things.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)