Official Report on the implementation of physician-assisted suicide in Washington in 2009, the first year of the law’s implementation
Washington’s Death with Dignity Act (DWDA), enacted in 2008, permits doctors to supply lethal drugs to patients who are terminally ill and mentally competent and who request them for purposes of suicide. Washington and neighbouring Oregon are the only two States in the USA to have passed laws of this nature. We provide here the official report on the operation of Washington’s DWDA during 2009. The DWDA came into force on 5 March 2009, so the data given in the report do not cover a complete year.