The right-to-die advocacy group the Hemlock Society has launched
a campaign urging lawmakers to "override" Attorney General John
Ashcroft's decision to pursue disciplinary action against doctors
who prescribe lethal doses of drugs for terminally ill patients
under Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law,
Unlike a workers’ compensation claim, the occupational disease claim
can expose the employer to whatever economic and non-economic
damages, including pain and suffering and loss of lifestyle damages,
the plaintiff can convince the jury to award. The employer may be
exposed to punitive damage claims in some cases
Oregon’s system for determining permanent partial disability (PPD)
benefits is unusual in at least three respects. First, unscheduled
losses are compensated differently based on the worker’s return to
regular work, or being released by a doctor to return to work
without restrictions. Under either of these conditions, the basis of
compensation is impairment only. If neither condition is met, the
compensation is on the basis of loss of wage-earning capacity.
Second, determining loss of wage-earning capacity involves a formula
that modifies the medical impairment rating according to age,
education and “adaptability” (that is, the ability to adapt to a
given job function). Finally, Oregon is one of a handful of states
that does not base its PPD awards for scheduled or unscheduled
losses on the worker’s preinjury wage.
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