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U.S. NEWS Friday 26 July 2019

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Oregon removes assisted

suicide wait for certain patients

By SARAH ZIMMERMAN ic Sen. Floyd Prozanski, who 15 days and then make a
Associated Press helped sponsor the legisla- written request.
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Legis- tion. They then had to wait an
lation allowing certain ter- Some opponents argued additional 48 hours before
minally ill patients to have that the move amounted obtaining the prescription.
quicker access to life-end- to an unnecessary expan- Under the new amend-
ing medications under the sion of the state’s physi- ment, doctors can make
state’s first-in-the-nation as- cian-assisted suicide law, exceptions to the waiting
sisted suicide law has been saying the law removes periods if the patient is like-
signed into law, Gov. Kate critical safeguards meant ly to die before completing
Brown’s office announced to ensure people are con- them.
Wednesday. fident in their decision to “Forcing eligible patients to In this Monday, July 1, 2019 file photo, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown
The law allows those with 15 end their own life. die suffering unnecessar- speaks with the media at the Capitol in Salem, Ore.
days left to live to bypass a “I don’t want to make it ily while they wait 15 days Associated Press
15-day waiting period re- any easier for any individ- was not the intention of the atively small. state’s death with dignity
quired under the Death ual in any circumstance to Oregon law,” said Kim Cal- Since it enacted the na- law, according to state
with Dignity Act, something take their life prematurely,” linan, CEO of Compassion tion’s first physician-assisted data.
proponents say will reduce Republican Rep. Duane & Choices, a national non- suicide law in 1997, nearly After the U.S. Supreme
bureaucracy and bring re- Stark said during floor de- profit that advocates for 1,500 people died from Court upheld Oregon’s law
lief to gravely ill people. bate last month. the expansion of medical taking life-ending medica- in 2006, eight states have
“This improvement will result Those seeking life-ending aid in dying. tions prescribed to them by since approved physician
in fewer Oregonians suffer- medications had to make The number of people who a physician. In 2018, about assisted-suicide. Maine and
ing needlessly at the end of a verbal request for physi- have taken advantage of 46 per every 10,000 deaths New Jersey’s laws are set to
their lives,” said Democrat- cian-assisted suicide, wait Oregon’s law has been rel- could be attributed to the take effect later this year.q

Man admits kidnapping, assaulting 10-year-old girl in 1999

By MARK SCOLFORO further trauma,” Dresbold son struck her in an effort to also cleaned himself and Pennsylvania, Nelson left
Associated Press said after the plea hear- silence her. then threw the bag from the child on the roadside,
A health insurance compa- ing. “Mr. Nelson has taken In West Virginia, he forced the window. Those items told her to count to 100
ny analyst pleaded guilty responsibility for his actions and then call her mother
Thursday to kidnapping and is taking this first step in from nearby. A passing mo-
and sexually assaulting a showing contrition and the torist saw the girl in distress
10-year-old girl after DNA remorse that he has been and stopped to help her,
evidence and new finger- feeling for a long time.” summoning police.
print technology helped FBI agent Robert Jones said For years the DNA and fin-
solve the 1999 crime. at a news conference after gerprints did not produce
Timothy D. Nelson Jr., 50, the hearing that the child a suspect, but Jones said
entered the plea in the was able to help investiga- investigators ran the partial
Johnstown, Pennsylvania, tors recover a discarded fingerprints through the FBI’s
federal courthouse and paper bag and napkins Next Generation Identifica-
agreed to a deal that will that eventually linked Nel- tion biometric database
likely result in a 30-year sen- son to the crime. last fall, and they matched
tence. Federal prosecutors told Nelson’s prints.
Nelson admitted he ab- the judge that Nelson, of Jones said Nelson later
ducted the girl in Cairn- Cumberland, Maryland, confessed.
brook, Pennsylvania, took drove past a group of U.S. Attorney Scott Brady
her to West Virginia and as- three girls several times be- said that Nelson is likely to
saulted her before releas- fore he got out and asked spend the rest of his life in
ing her. them a question. When the federal prison.
His lawyer, Lyle Dresbold, 10-year-old victim respond- “We brought Timothy Nel-
said Nelson feels remorse ed, he grabbed her, put This undated photo provided by the Pennsylvania State Police son Jr. to justice,” Brady
and plans to express that her in the car and drove shows Timothy D. Nelson Jr., 50, of Cumberland, Md. said after the hearing. “And
when he is sentenced in away, keeping her on the Associated Press through that we were able
late August. floor of the passenger seat to bring some measure of
“He entered the guilty plea and pointing a handgun at her to perform a sex act eventually helped solve the closure and finality — and
today, in part, to spare the her head. and gave her a napkin and crime. yes, freedom — to this cou-
victim and her family any When she screamed, Nel- a bag to clean herself. He After driving her back into rageous young woman.”q