A Comparison of Physician-Assisted/Death-With-Dignity-Act Death and Suicide Patterns in Older Adult Women and Men

•What is the primary question addressed by this study?This study compares physician-assisted/Death-with-Dignity death and suicide patterns in women and men age 65 and older in Oregon, the first U.S. state to legalize physician-assisted death under the 1997 Death-with-Dignity-Act (DWDA)--as a way to assess the impact of the DWDA on older adult women, a group considered vulnerable to being pressured into a DWDA death.•What is the main finding of this study?Between 1998 and 2018 women age 65 and older represented 46% of DWDA deaths and 16.3% of suicides in their age group. DWDA deaths were the most common form (52.7%) of self-initiated death for older adult women, and firearm suicides (65.7%) for older adult men.•What is the meaning of the finding?This study's findings, consistent with those of studies conducted in Switzerland, raise questions about the role of medicalization and legalization in increasing women's interest in, and mortality by self-initiated death.