Gary Haugen, convicted of murder and sentenced to a drug-induced death, wants to fire the court-appointed lawyers who are filing appeals to prevent the state from carrying out the sentence. Today a Marion County judge granted his request. This doesn't mean that he'll be executed next month, as he wishes; the new lawyers will have to evaluate whether Mr. Haugen is competent to wish to be put to death for his crime.
It's Mr. Haugen's misfortune not to have a terminal illness, because under Oregon's Death With Dignity Act, the lawyers and courts wouldn't be involved. If Mr. Haugen were terminally ill, made two requests for assisted suicide 15 days apart, and had two physicians of his choice agree that he was mentally competent, they could prescribe the appropriate drugs for him to take. Why shouldn't he be able to have his wish to die honored, if he can satisfy similar safeguards: make two requests in writing 15 days apart, be evaluated by two physicians of his choice, and if they agree that he knows what he's doing, allow the judicial system to do its work? It's odd to argue that a person who wants to die rather than endure up to six months of pain is rational, but another person who wants to die rather than endure forty years in a maximum-security prison isn't.