Dr. Tom Jeanne:

It has mostly been focused around three issues, two of which have changed. I mentioned the waiting periods for which there are now exemptions for people who have a very short prognosis, a very short life expectancy. In those cases, people can be exempted from the 15-day waiting period from the verbal request, and in extreme cases exempted from the 48-hour waiting period between the written request, and the prescription being written. That has changed. The residency requirement has also been changed in the past year. The other call for expansion relates to other Bills in Oregon’s state legislature. There have been Bills to expand it, so that it is not just ingestion but other routes of administration. However, those have not passed to date, so it still requires ingestion. I do not believe it is specified in more detail beyond ingestion and self-administration.

It still requires ingestion and I do not believe it is specified in more detail beyond just ingestion and self-administration. As Dr. Battin mentioned, if a patient is not able to swallow and has a feeding tube, and if they are able to put it in their feeding tube that is certainly acceptable under our law. In terms of lessons for Ireland as this is being considered, I mentioned in my opening statement that Oregon has had, in my view, a pretty smooth experience with this and the limited nature of our process and the requirement for self-administration as opposed to a true euthanasia or active euthanasia where a provider could administer it avoids a lot of concerns. That would be our key takeaway.