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DON RYAN / AP

Compassion in Dying Federation President Barbara Coombs Lee and
plaintiff Ric Burger appear outside a Portland courthouse after a 2002
hearing on Oregon's physician-assisted-suicide law.

Lucile Adamson, who had cancer, died 10 days ago.
By Tim Christie
The Register-Guard

EUGENE, Ore. - The white electric clock perched atop the television
ticks away the last minutes of Lucile Adamson's life, marking the time
until she is ready to drink six ounces of a bitter clear liquid that
will stop her heart.

Adamson, 78, has been fighting breast cancer for 10 years and now the
cancer had won. It has spread throughout her body, and doctors have
stopped treatment. She finds just getting around her sparsely furnished
apartment to be a painful struggle.

Adamson, a retired biochemist, moved to Eugene five years ago from Los
Osos, Calif., attracted by the climate, nearby hiking trails and the
college-town atmosphere. Oregon's one-of-a-kind assisted-suicide law
was in the back of her mind as well, as she knew that someday she might
have cause to put the law to use.

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