Depressed people with terminal illnesses are being given lethal drugs by doctors in Oregon, without having been assessed or treated for their depression.

That’s the finding of a study published Oct. 8 by the British Medical Journal.

Oregon’s “Death With Dignity” legislation contains provisions that say terminally ill patients who request lethal medication should be referred to a psychologist or a psychiatrist to assess if mental illness may be impairing their judgment.

But the study reported that none of the 46 people who used doctor-prescribed, life-ending medication in Oregon in 2007 were evaluated by a psychologist or a psychologist beforehand.

The study, conducted by researchers at Oregon Health and Sciences University, investigated whether patients who ask for lethal medications are suffering from mental illness.

The researchers checked for clinical symptoms of depression among 58 terminally ill individuals. Nearly half of them displayed such symptoms.

Nine of the 58 patients subsequently were killed by ingesting lethal medication prescribed by doctors.

Three of those people, or 33% of the group, met the criteria for depression.

Oregon is the only state to where doctor-assisted suicide is legal. An initiative to legalize it in neighboring Washington is on the state’s November ballot.

— Tom McFeely