On this day, May 5, 1903, James Beard, US culinary expert, author (Delights & Prejudices), was born in Portland, Ore.
Also on this day, May 5, 1945, A Japanese balloon bomb exploded on Gearhart Mountain in Oregon, killing Mrs. Elsie Mitchell, the pregnant wife of a minister, and five children after they attempted to drag it out the woods in Lakeview, Oregon. The balloon was armed, and exploded soon after they began tampering with it. They became the 1st and only known American civilians to be killed in the continental US during World War II.
Also on this day, May 5, 1945, Bly minister Archie Mitchell, his pregnant wife Elsie, and five children from Mitchell's Sunday school class were on a Saturday morning picnic. Thirteen miles northeast of Bly, or about sixty miles northeast of Klamath Falls, Mitchell parked the car, and Elsie and the children headed to Leonard Creek. Mitchell later remembered: "As I got out of the car to bring the lunch, the others were not far away and called to me they had found something that looked like a balloon. I heard of Japanese balloons so I shouted a warning not to touch it. But just then there was a big explosion. I ran up there--and they were all dead." It was a Japanese balloon bomb. They were 70 feet tall with a 33-foot diameter paper canopy connected to the main device by shroud lines. Balloons inflated with hydrogen followed the jet stream at an altitude of 30,000 feet.
First-In-The-Nation
Oregon Health Authority (OHA) and the Oregon Medical Board have now settled a
lawsuit by ceasing to require terminally ill people to be state
residents in order to obtain deadly medication to end their own lives.
Oregon is the first state to drop the residency requirement.
Dr. Nicholas Gideonse, Portland physician represented by Compassion
and Choices, a non-profit that advocates for physician-assisted suicide,
filed the lawsuit last October contending that restricting the right to die
by state lines violated Oregon’s Death with Dignity Act and the U.S.
Constitution.
Gideonse’s suit was against the governor, attorney general, Multnomah
County’s district attorney and state health officials. The attorney
claimed the requirement was both discriminatory and profoundly
unfair to dying patients at a critical time in their life. “In no other way is
my practice restricted to Oregon residents,†Gideonse said. His
statement specifically mentioned impeding quality care for Washington
patients that are terminally ill.
Washington State legalized assisted suicide on March 5, 2009, called
the Death with Dignity Act that is similar to Oregon’s law. It allows a
terminally ill patient to request a lethal prescription from their doctor if
they have less than six months to live.
While Washington has a law,
providers in the southwestern part of the state are religiously affiliated
facilities that prohibit it.
California has also passed an assisted suicide law in 2016.
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Nine states
have legalized physician-assisted suicide including Oregon, California,
Washington, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico,
Vermont plus DC. Montana requires a court ruling.
Still, Oregon Right to Life advocates voiced concern that there is a
dangerously short physician-patient relationship that would provide
protection against predatory practices providing no accountability on
life and death issues.
Oregon could become an assisted suicide
tourism destination.
OHA records indicate some 2,159 people have died from prescription
lethal drugs under the law since it took effect in 1997. Advocates want
to press other states to also drop their residency requirements.
--Donna Bleiler| Post Date: 2022-04-01 09:53:47 | Last Update: 2022-04-01 10:13:15 |
