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"If you drink this, you will die," George Eighmey told Karen Janoch, showing her a Pyrex measuring cup that held 90 capsules of Seconal dissolved in water.
"Do not feel coerced or pressured to do this," said Mr. Eighmey, the executive director of Compassion in Dying of Oregon. "You can still change your mind."
Ms. Janoch, terminally ill with liver cancer, looked at the beaker and replied, "I want to do this now."
Sitting on her bed, surrounded by 18 friends who had received formal invitations to attend her death, she took several small sips, then finished the bitter solution with one large gulp. Three minutes later she said, "I think I'm going to sleep now," and lapsed into a coma. Less than 15 minutes after that, at 7:55 p.m. on April 7, she was dead, adding her name to the list of those who have taken their own lives under Oregon's Death With Dignity Act.
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