How to Die in Oregon is a 2011 documentary film

Documentary film

Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 produced and directed by Peter Richardson

Peter Richardson (filmmaker)

Peter Richardson is an American documentary film director. A native of Philomath, Oregon, Richardson is a 1998 graduate of Philomath High School and attended Notre Dame University on a scholarship...

. The film is set in the state of Oregon

Oregon

Oregon is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is located on the Pacific coast, with Washington to the north, California to the south, Nevada on the southeast and Idaho to the east. The Columbia and Snake rivers delineate much of Oregon's northern and eastern...

 and covers the state's Death with Dignity Act that allows terminally ill patients to end their own life with medication prescribed by their physician (a form of assisted suicide

Assisted suicide

Assisted suicide is the common term for actions by which an individual helps another person voluntarily bring about his or her own death. "Assistance" may mean providing one with the means to end one's own life, but may extend to other actions. It differs to euthanasia where another person ends...

).

Synopsis

Through a 1994 ballot measure (Measure 16) named the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, Oregon became the first U.S. state and one of the first jurisdictions in the world to allow physician-assisted suicide. The film covers the background of the Oregon law and the life of a few patients who have chosen to take their life under it. It also features some information about the neighboring state of Washington's attempt to legalize physician-assisted suicide in 2008 through a law (Washington Death with Dignity Act) modeled after Oregon's.

Release

The film was released in January 2011 at the 27th Sundance Film Festival and began airing on HBO later in the year. Peter Richardson, a native Oregonian, got the idea to produce the film as the state's law was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States

Supreme Court of the United States

The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest court in the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all state and federal courts, and original jurisdiction over a small range of cases...

 in the 2006 case Gonzales v. Oregon

Gonzales v. Oregon

Gonzales v. Oregon, 546 U.S. 243 , was a decision by the United States Supreme Court, which ruled that the United States Attorney General could not enforce the federal Controlled Substances Act against physicians who prescribed drugs, in compliance with Oregon state law, for the assisted suicide of...

.

Critical reception

The film was well-received by critics and won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentaries prize at the 27th Sundance Film Festival.