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Dr. Peter Rasmussen

Saerom Yoo
Statesman Journal
Dr. Peter Rasmussen takes his dog, Pugsley, for a walk around the East Salem neighborhood where he lives.

Who is Dr. Peter Rasmussen?

Rasmussen was a retired oncologist, hospice physician and Death With Dignity advocate who faced his own death due to a terminal brain cancer. The Statesman Journal followed him through his end-of-life journey as he grappled with the same issues he fought for on behalf of his own patients many years ago.

Feedback: Share your memories and experiences with Dr. Rasmussen.

Dr. Peter Rasmussen lies in bed listening to one of his favorite childhood  fairy tales by Hans Andersen with family.

A life well ended | Dec. 12, 2015

Dr. Peter Rasmussen, who advocated for Oregon's Death with Dignity law died at home, in peace, surrounded by loved ones.

Dr. Peter Rasmussen, Death with Dignity advocate, dies | Nov. 11, 2015

Dr. Peter Rasmussen, a national advocate for legalizing physician aid-in-dying, died Tuesday morning with the help of Oregon’s Death with Dignity law, his family said.

Rasmussen’s wife, Cindy Rasmussen, said her husband was surrounded by family when he took the lethal dose of drugs to end his life.

Cindy Rasmussen described his last moments as peaceful and that he died 30 minutes after taking the medicine.

Expert: Mental health of man accused in PV murders diminishing

Dr. Peter Rasmussen, a retired oncologist and advocate for physician aid-in-dying, recovers at Providence Benedictine Nursing Center on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015, in Mt. Angel, Ore., following a surgery to remove his recurrent brain tumor.

Disabled, Rasmussen adapts after second tumor removal | Sept. 13, 2015

Days after he returned from a European family vacation, Rasmussen learned that his brain tumor had returned. It had been dormant since being surgically removed in May 2014 -- longer than Rasmussen expected. This was a burden on its own, awaiting its arrival.

But now, he had a decision to make.

He could do nothing, and let the glioblastoma -- the same disease that California native Brittany Maynard had when she moved to Oregon to use its Death With Dignity law -- take its course. That would have meant disability, seizures and eventual death.

Or there were treatment options.

Disabled, Rasmussen adapts after second tumor removal

Dr. Peter Rasmussen reviews the charts of patients he has helped through Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act. All the years that he has assisted his patients through end of life are now circling back to help him face his own death.

Dr. Rasmussen faces uncertainty amid terminal cancer | July 5, 2015

These days, Dr. Peter Rasmussen constantly teeters between living life and waiting for death.

Should he take a role in a play? Should he start a new project in his yard? Should he book a summer vacation?

"It's hard to know what to do," Rasmussen said. "You kind of dread getting halfway into a project and not being able to finish. Then if you do nothing, then you just do nothing."

All the while, he analyzes every abnormality his body presents. A headache could mean his brain tumor is growing back. But he's had headaches his whole life, he says, and there was a time when they didn't have much significance.

Here's the thing: Rasmussen is in much better shape than he had expected more than a year after he received a diagnosis of grade 4 glioblastoma, a tumor in the right hemisphere of his brain.

Besides some unsteadiness and the wisps of hair growing back as his body recovers from treatment, Rasmussen appears to be well.

Dr. Peter Rasmussen applauds a fellow speaker during the ICL discussion "Living with Dying" on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2015, at Willamette University in Salem.

Rasmussen shares poignant memory in talk about death | Feb. 3, 2015

How do you tell someone you have a terminal brain tumor?

If you're Dr. Peter Rasmussen, you stick to the facts. Place the emotions in a box and stow it away alongside the tumor that threatens to return at any moment.

You describe what it's called, what stage it's in, what therapies are available and the statistics, according to clinical trials. As a retired cancer doctor, this is second nature to Rasmussen. He has done this countless times — though until now, the cancer was in a patient's body, not his own.

Rasmussen acknowledged that the emotions were there — nothing helped to keep his mind off his impending mortality. Not reading a book, the newspaper or watching TV.

Dr. Peter Rasmussen, a retired medical oncologist who led the Death With Dignity movement and defended the Oregon law in the U.S. Supreme Court, takes his dog, Pugsley, for a walk around their Salem neighborhood.

Rasmussen promotes Calif. Death With Dignity bill | Jan. 30, 2015

Dr. Peter Rasmussen, an Oregon Death With Dignity pioneer who is now grappling with his own end-of-life options, urged in an opinion column that California lawmakers pass a bill that would allow terminally ill patients access to lethal drugs to end their suffering.

Rasmussen, a retired oncologist and hospice physician in Salem, has the same illness that California native and Death With Dignity user Brittany Maynard died from last year — grade 4 glioblastoma, a brain tumor. Maynard and her family moved to Oregon to access the United State's first physician aid-in-dying law.

Reporter Saerom Yoo, left, interview Dr. Peter Rasmussen while on a walk with his dog, Pugsley, in Rasmussen’s East Salem neighborhood. The retired oncologist and Death With Dignity advocate is facing his own demise from a brain tumor.

Taking the fear out of talking about death | Dec. 22, 2014

How do you interview someone who knows he is dying? I didn't feel equipped.

Dr. Peter Rasmussen, a retired oncologist and Death With Dignity advocate, was dying. That, at the most basic level, was the story I pursued, and it ran on Sunday.

I interview experts all the time. I've gotten over feeling self-conscious about asking stupid questions to people who have studied their whole adult lives on topics I've barely perused.

When the topic was death, and the expert in this case was, in fact, dying, I felt tiny.

But it turns out that insecurity came from a place of ignorance. When we're dealing with a mystery of sorts, there tends to be a sense of unease.

A picture of Dr. Peter Rasmussen and his wife, Cindy, from their trip to Durango and Silverton, Colorado, is displayed at their East Salem home.

Retired doctor, Death With Dignity advocate ponders own death | Dec. 20, 2014

For more than a decade, Rasmussen advocated for terminally ill patients' right to choose their own death, and defended it from detractors near and far, eventually fighting for Oregon's Death With Dignity law in the U.S. Supreme Court against the federal government's efforts to shut it down.

Despite vitriol and threats to his career, he did not waver in the political storm, helping numerous patients take control of the final decision of their lives — not whether to die, but when and how.

Now Rasmussen, who led efforts to improve end-of-life care in Salem's medical community, may face the same decision.

A small malignant tumor in his brain means that he could soon be among the beneficiaries of the law.