Measure 16 of 1994 established the U.S. state of Oregon's Death with Dignity Act (ORS 127.800–995),[1] which legalizes medical aid in dying (commonly referred to as physician-assisted suicide) with certain restrictions.

Passage of this initiative made Oregon the first U.S. state and one of the first jurisdictions in the world to permit some terminally ill patients to determine the time of their own death.

[3] Measure 51, referred in the wake of the US Supreme Court's 1997 ruling in Washington v. Glucksberg by the state legislature in November 1997, sought to repeal the Death with Dignity Act, but was rejected by 60% of voters.

[4] The act was challenged by the George W. Bush administration, but was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States in Gonzales v. Oregon in 2006.

The law protects doctors from liability for providing a lethal prescription for a terminally ill, competent adult in compliance with the statute's restrictions.

[8] In addition to arguments against physician-assisted dying, opponents feared that terminally ill people throughout the nation would flock to Oregon to take advantage of the law.

[11] Some members of the United States Congress, notably Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma, tried to block implementation of Measure 16, but failed.

[14] The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the block, stating that the "Attorney General lacked Congress' requisite authorization".

[15] In October 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in the case of Gonzales v. Oregon to determine the fate of the Death with Dignity law.