Advisory Council
PETER REAGAN, MD
Dr. Reagan is a retired family physician living in Portland, Oregon. His practice included hospital care, surgical assisting, pediatrics and obstetrics.
He was trained at Haverford College, with a BA Physics; Reed College in Portland with Master of Arts in Teaching, after which he taught high school in Portland and in Alaska. During this time and partly related to his Quaker upbringing, he became politically active in the movement to oppose the Vietnam War. He was a war resister, and was convicted for refusing to serve under the Selective Service Law in 1970. (3 years on federal probation.)
Dr. Reagan then attended Medical School at Oregon Health Sciences University, graduating in 1977. He went into private practice in Oregon from 1983 to 2011. During this time he served as Adventist Hospital Family Practice Chair, Adventist Hospital Medical Staff President, and Adventist Hospital QA chair. Dr. Reagan also was an Associate Adjunct Professor at OHSU. He served as a member of the Board of Medical Society of Metropolitan Portland, and is a current member of the Oregon Academy of Family Physicians.
Dr. Reagan was interviewed for radio and newspaper during the election campaigns for Oregon’s Death with Dignity Law in 1994 and 1997. In 1998 he was asked to see a patient who became the first person to use the Oregon Law. He wrote approximately 25 prescriptions under the law during the following 13 years and attended three of his patients’ deaths. Since retiring from clinical practice in 2011, he volunteered for Compassion & Choices of Oregon, working as one of their national medical directors and participating in public speaking as an advocate for laws similar to Oregon’s law. He also helped with implementation in states where the practice has been more recently authorized, and continues helping to improve access in Oregon.
More recently, Dr. Reagan has worked in Portland as a volunteer for the Trauma Intervention Program and also on a trail crew repairing hiking trails in the Columbia Gorge damaged in a recent fire.
Dr. Reagan has received numerous awards:
- Carpenter teaching award from OHSU FP Dept. 2005
- School of Medicine 2010 Volunteer Faculty Recognition Award
- Moorestown Friends School Alumni: Alice Stokes Paul Lifetime Merit Award 2014
- National Aeronautic Association National Safety Award about 1997, for work in paragliding accident reporting and safety improvement.
Dr. Reagan also has written a number of publications:
- Common Sense and a Thick Hide, Arch Fam Med. 1994 Jul;3(7):599-604
- Helen, Lancet, Vol 353, Apr 10/1999 pp 1265-67
- Physician Assisted Death, Dying with Dignity? The Lancet Neurology vol 2, October 2003 p 637
Dr. Reagan is married to Dr. Bonnie Reagan MD, has two children who are each physicians married to physicians in Portland, with four delightful teenage grandchildren. Dr. Reagan happily admits to being a hardcore wilderness aficionado.
EOLCCA is honored and pleased to have Dr. Reagan’s expertise and experience on our Advisory Committee. We know that not only is all the above true, but he is a kind and gentle soul who cares deeply that sick and dying patients are able to find information about all end of life options in any state. He has been instrumental in teaching physicians across the country how to become more comfortable in supporting their patients’ end of life wishes.
