One of the most important public policy debates today surrounds the issues of

euthanasia and assisted suicide. The outcome of that debate will profoundly affect
family relationships, interaction between doctors and patients, and concepts of basic
ethical behavior. With so much at stake, more is needed than a duel of one-liners,
slogans and sound bites.
The following answers to frequently asked questions are designed as starting points for
considering the issues. For more detailed information see the documented, in-depth
material available at this web site.
1. Where are euthanasia and assisted suicide legal?
Oregon, Washington, Montana, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg are the only
jurisdictions in the world where laws specifically permit euthanasia or assisted suicide.
Note: On May 20, 2013, doctor-prescribed suicide became a legal medical treatment
in Vermont. For information on that law, see Vermont.
Oregon and Washington passed laws and Montanas Supreme Court determined that
assisted suicide is a medical treatment.(1) The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg
permit both euthanasia and assisted suicide. Although euthanasia and assisted suicide
are illegal in Switzerland, assisted suicide is penalized only if it is carried out from
selfish motives.(2)
In 1995 Australias Northern Territory approved a euthanasia bill.(3) It went into effect
in 1996 but was overturned by the Australian Parliament in 1997. Also, in 1997,
Colombias Supreme Court ruled that penalties for mercy killing should be removed.(4)
However the ruling does not go into effect until guidelines are approved by the
Colombian Congress.
2. What is the difference between euthanasia and assisted suicide?
One way to distinguish them is to look at the last act the act without which death
would not occur.
Using this distinction, if a third party performs the last act that intentionally causes a
patients death, euthanasia has occurred. For example, giving a patient a lethal injection
or putting a plastic bag over her head to suffocate her would be considered euthanasia.
On the other hand, if the person who dies performs the last act, assisted suicide has
taken place. Thus it would be assisted suicide if a person swallows an overdose of drugs
that has been provided by a doctor for the purpose of causing death. It would also be
assisted suicide if a patient pushes a switch to trigger a fatal injection after the doctor
has inserted an intravenous needle into the patients vein.
3. Doesnt modern technology keep people alive who would have died in the
past?
Modern medicine has definitely lengthened life spans. A century ago, high blood
pressure, pneumonia, appendicitis, and diabetes likely meant death, often accompanied
by excruciating pain. Women had shorter life expectancies than men since many died in
childbirth. Antibiotics, immunizations, modern surgery and many of todays routine
therapies or medications were unknown then.
4. Should people be forced to stay alive?
No. A lot of people think that euthanasia or assisted suicide is needed so patients wont
be forced to remain alive by being hooked up to machines. But the law already permits
patients or their surrogates to withhold or withdraw unwanted medical treatment even
if that increases the likelihood that the patient will die. Thus, no one needs to be hooked
up to machines against their will.
Neither the law nor medical ethics requires that everything be done to keep a person
alive. Insistence, against the patients wishes, that death be postponed by every means
available is contrary to law and practice. It is also cruel and inhumane.
There comes a time when continued attempts to cure are not compassionate, wise, or
medically sound. Thats when hospice, including in-home hospice care, can be of great
help. That is the time when all efforts should be directed to making the patients
remaining time comfortable. Then, all interventions should be directed to alleviating
pain and other symptoms as well as to providing emotional and spiritual support for
both the patient and the patients loved ones.
5. Does the government have the right to make people suffer?
Absolutely not. Likewise, the government should not have the right to give one group of
people (e.g. doctors) the power to kill another group of people (e.g. their patients).
Activists often claim that laws against euthanasia and assisted suicide are government
mandated suffering. But this claim would be similar to saying that laws against selling
contaminated food are government mandated starvation.
Laws against euthanasia and assisted suicide are in place to prevent abuse and to
protect people from unscrupulous doctors and others. They are not, and never have
been, intended to make anyone suffer.
6. But shouldnt people have the right to commit suicide?
People do have the power to commit suicide. Worldwide, about a million people commit
suicide annually.(5) Suicide and attempted suicide are not criminalized. Each and every
year, in the United States alone, there are 1.6 times as many suicides as there are
homicides.(6) And, internationally, suicide is one of the three leading causes of death
among people ages 15-34. (7)
Suicide is an all too common tragic, individual act. Indeed, in 1999, the Surgeon General
of the United States launched a campaign to reduce the rate of suicide.(8)
Euthanasia and assisted suicide are not private acts. Rather, they involve one person
facilitating the death of another. This is a matter of very public concern since it can lead
to tremendous abuse, exploitation and erosion of care for the most vulnerable people
among us.
Euthanasia and assisted suicide are not about giving rights to the person who dies but,
instead, they are about changing public policy so that doctors or others can directly and
intentionally end or participate in ending another persons life. Euthanasia and assisted
suicide are not about the right to die. They are about the right to kill.
7. Isnt kill too strong a word for euthanasia and assisted suicide?
No. The word kill means to cause the death of.(9)
In 1989, a group of physicians published a report in the New England Journal of
Medicine in which they concluded that it would be morally acceptable for doctors to give
patients suicide information and a prescription for deadly drugs so they can kill
themselves.(10) Dr. Ronald Cranford, one of the authors of the report, publicly
acknowledged that this was the same as killing the patient.(11)
While changes in laws have transformed euthanasia and/or assisted suicide from crimes
into medical treatments in Oregon, Washington, Belgium and the Netherlands, the
reality has not changed patients are being killed.
Proponents of euthanasia and assisted suicide often use euphemisms like deliverance,
death with dignity, aid-in-dying and gentle landing. If a proposed change in public
policy has to be promoted with euphemisms, this may be due to the fact that the use of
accurate, descriptive language would make its chilling reality too obvious.
8. Wouldnt euthanasia or assisted suicide only be available to people who
are terminally ill?
No. There are two problems here the definition of terminal and the changes that
have already taken place to extend euthanasia or assisted suicide to those who arent
terminally ill.
Terminal
There are many definitions for the word terminal. For example, Jack Kevorkian who
participated in the deaths of more than 130 people before he was convicted of murder
said that a terminal illness was any disease that curtails life even for a day.(12) Dutch
psychiatrist Dr. Boudewijn Chabot who provided a fatal dose of drugs to a depressed,
but physically healthy, woman, stated that persistently suicidal patients are, indeed,
terminal.(13)
Oregons and Washingtons assisted-suicide laws defines terminal as a condition
which will within reasonable medical judgment, produce death within six months.(14)
A prognosis of six month to live is also the basis upon which patients qualify for hospice
coverage under Medicare.(15) However, federal officials note that about 10% of patients
live longer than the anticipated six-month life expectancy.(16)
The use of a six-month prognosis to qualify a patient for assisted suicide or euthanasia
was challenged in the World Federation of Right to Die Societies newsletter as well:
The six-month standard not only calls on doctors to make an unreliable prediction, but
prescribes a pointless time limit: The longer the life expectancy the greater the patients
suffering. The essential elements for legislation are that the condition is irremediable by
medical treatment and the suffering is intolerable to the patient.(17)
The Dutch who describe terminal as a concrete expectancy of death, have made no
attempt to predict when that concrete expectancy will be fulfilled.(18) Even a Dutch
physician who has carried out euthanasia is reluctant to say how long the patient might
have lived otherwise since any estimate of the extent of shortening of life can only be
very general and this has no absolute value.(19)
Not Terminal
The idea that euthanasia and assisted suicide should only be practiced if a patient has a
terminal condition has never been accepted in the Netherlands.(20) Under both the
previous guidelines and the new law in the Netherlands, unbearable suffering of either a
physical or mental nature has been the factor that qualifies one for induced death.(21)
It appears that not even the prerequisite of subjective unbearable suffering will be
maintained for much longer. Discussion now centers on whether assisted suicide should
be available to elderly people who are healthy but tired of life. Dutch Minister of
Justice Els Borst has said, I am not against it if it can be carefully controlled so that
only those people of advanced age who are tired of life can use it.(22)
Assisted suicide for non-terminally ill patients has also been advocated repeatedly in the
United States.
In 1994, the influential New England Journal of Medicine published an article
recommending legalization that would permit assisted suicide not only for individuals
who have terminal conditions but also for those with incurable debilitating illnesses.
(23)
Likewise, the Hemlock Society (now called Compassion & Choices), citing the fact that
many people fear becoming a burden, has publicly supported a mans legal attempt to
empower his wife to have a doctor end his life by lethal injection, without criminal
liability, should he be stricken by a debilitating illness.(24)
Within two years after the passage of Oregons assisted suicide law, a model law was
drafted that would have given doctors the right to provide assisted suicide if the patient
has a terminal illness or an intractable and unbearable illness.(25)
A 1995 article in the journal, Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, concluded that
suicide is a rational choice for those with hopeless conditions. As defined, Hopeless
conditions include, but are not necessarily limited to terminal illnesses, severe physical
and/or psychological pain, physically or mentally debilitating and/or deteriorating
conditions, or quality of life no longer acceptable to the individual.(26)
In a May 1996 speech to the prestigious American Psychiatric Association, George
Delury who portrayed himself as a loving husband who helped his non-terminally ill
wife die (27) suggested that hopelessly ill people or people past age sixty just apply
for a license to die. He said that such a license should be granted without examination
by doctors.(28)
At a 1998 international meeting held in Zurich, Switzerland, right-to-die activists issued
a declaration calling for the availability of assisted suicide and euthanasia for those
suffering severe and enduring distress.(29)
A failed proposal in South Australia would have made euthanasia and assisted suicide
available to those who are hopelessly ill. According to the Dignity in Dying Bill 2001:
A person is hopelessly ill if the person has an injury or illness
(a) that will result, or has resulted, in serious mental impairment or permanent
deprivation or consciousness; or
(b) that seriously and irreversibly impairs the persons quality of life so that life has
become intolerable to that person.(30)
9. Wouldnt euthanasia and assisted suicide only be at a patients request?
No. As one of their major goals, euthanasia proponents seek to have euthanasia and
assisted suicide considered medical treatment. If one accepts the notion that
euthanasia or assisted suicide is a good medical treatment, then it would not only be
inappropriate, but discriminatory, to deny this good treatment to a person solely
because that person is too young or mentally incapacitated to request it.
In the United States, a surrogates decision is often treated, for legal purposes, as if the
patient had made it. That means that, if euthanasia is legal, a court challenge could
result in a finding that a surrogate could make a request for death on behalf of a child or
an adult who doesnt have decision-making capacity.
In the Netherlands, a 1990 government sponsored survey found that .8% of all deaths in
the Netherlands were euthanasia deaths that occurred without a request from the
patient.(31) And in a 1995 study, Dutch doctors reported ending the lives of 948 patients
without their request.(32)
Suppose, however that surrogates were not permitted to choose death for another and
that doctors did not end patients lives without their request. The fact still remains that
subtle, even unintended, pressure would still be unavoidable.
Such was the case with an elderly woman who died under Oregons assisted suicide law:
Kate Cheney, 85, reportedly had been suffering from early dementia. After she was
diagnosed with cancer, her own physician declined to provide a lethal prescription for
her. Counseling was sought to determine if she was capable of making health care
decisions.
A psychiatrist found that Mrs. Cheney was not eligible for assisted suicide since she was
not explicitly pushing for it, her daughter seemed to be coaching her to do so, and she
couldnt remember important names and details of even a recent hospital stay.
Mrs. Cheney was then taken to a psychologist who said she was competent but possibly
under the influence of her daughter who was somewhat coercive. Finally, a managed
care ethicist who was overseeing her case determined that she was qualified for assisted
suicide, and the lethal drugs were prescribed.(33)
10. Could euthanasia or assisted suicide be used as a means of health care
cost containment?
Yes. Perhaps one of the most important developments in recent years is the increasing
emphasis placed on health care providers to contain costs. In such a climate, euthanasia
or assisted suicide certainly could become a means of cost containment.
These implications were acknowledged during a historic argument before the U.S.
Supreme Court. Arguing against assisted suicide, acting solicitor general Walter
Dellinger said, The least costly treatment for any illness is lethal medication.(34)
In the United States alone, millions of people have no medical insurance and studies
have shown that the elderly, the poor and minorities are often denied access to needed
treatment or pain control.(35) Doctors are being pressured by HMOs to reduce care;
futile care guidelines are being instituted, enabling health facilities to deny necessary
and wanted interventions; and health care providers are often likely to benefit
financially from providing less, rather than more, care for their patients.(36)
In Oregon, some patients have been told by their health insurance provider that a costly
drug prescribed by a doctor to treat the patients illness would not be covered but
inexpensive lethal drugs for assisted suicide would be. (37) See: Oregons Suicidal
Approach to Health Care
Canadians are faced with such long delays getting treatment in the countrys
overcrowded health care system that the Canadian government has contracted for
Canadians to be treated out of the country. (38)
Many British doctors and nurses have concluded that the only way to secure the future
of the National Health Service (NHS) is to make more treatments available only to those
who can pay privately for them. (39) And a survey by the Nuffield Trust and the nurses
magazine, Nursing Times, found that the NHS is failing to care adequately for hundreds
of thousands of patients who die each year, many without proper care or pain relief.(40)
Savings to governments could become a consideration. Drugs for assisted suicide cost
about $75 to $100, making them far less expensive than providing medical care. This
could fill the void from cutbacks for treatment and care with the treatment of death.
For example, the Oregon Medicaid program pays for assisted suicide for poor residents
as a means of comfort care. (41) In addition, spokespersons for non-governmental
health insurance plans have said the coverage of assisted suicide is no different than
any other covered prescription. (42)
Legalized euthanasia or assisted suicide raises the potential for a profoundly dangerous
situation in which the choice of assisted suicide or euthanasia is the only affordable
option for some people.
11. Certainly people wouldnt be forced into euthanasia or assisted suicide,
would they?
Oregons and Washingtons assisted-suicide laws do not allow anyone to coerce or use
undue influence to obtain a request for assisted suicide. (43) However, there is
absolutely nothing in the Oregon and Washington laws to prevent HMOs, managed care
companies, doctors or anyone else from suggesting, encouraging, offering, or bringing
up assisted suicide with a patient who has not asked about it.
Emotional, financial and psychological pressures could become overpowering for
depressed or dependent people. If the choice of euthanasia or assisted suicide is
considered as good as a decision to receive care, some people will feel guilty for not
choosing death.
The concern about being a burden could serve as a powerful force that could influence
the decision. The tenth annual report on deaths under the Oregon assisted-suicide law
illustrates this. In 45% of the deaths reported during 2007, fear of being a burden was
expressed as a reason for requesting assisted suicide. (44)
Even the smallest gesture could create a gentle nudge into the grave. Such was
evidenced in greeting cards sold at a national conference of the Hemlock Society.
According to the conference program, the cards were designed to be given to those who
are terminally ill. One card in particular exemplified the core of the movement that
would remove the last shred of hope remaining to a person faced with a life-threatening
illness. It carried the message, I learned youll be leaving us soon. (45)
12. Wouldnt legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide make certain that
patients can die peacefully, surrounded by their families and doctors,
instead of being suffocated by plastic bags or gassed to death with helium or
carbon monoxide?
No. Legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide only legitimizes the use of plastic bags
and toxic gasses to kill vulnerable people.
For example, immediately following the passage of Oregons assisted-suicide law, some
who favor euthanasia and assisted suicide said the new law would permit the types of
activities carried out by Jack Kevorkian. (46) Others said pills could lead to
complications and only a lethal injection or suffocation with a plastic bag could ensure
death. (47)
Official reports in Oregon have not provided information on problems and
complications associated with assisted-suicide deaths. If it were not for occasional news
reports and inadvertent disclosures, assisted-suicide in Oregon would seem problem
free. However, two particularly troubling accounts have shattered that image:
After Patrick Matheny received his lethal dose of drugs from the Oregon Health
Sciences University via Federal Express, he delayed taking them for four months. On
the day of his death, he experienced difficulty.His brother-in-law, Joe Hayes, said he
had to help Matheny die. According to Hayes, It doesnt go smoothly for everyone.
For Pat, it was a huge problem. It would not have worked without help. (48)
Another assisted suicide that went awry was disclosed by attorney Cynthia Barrett,
an assisted suicide supporter, in December 1999 during a class at Portland
Community College titled, Physician Assisted Suicide: Counseling Patients/Clients.
According to Barrett, The man was at home. There was no doctor there, she
said.After he took it [the drug overdose], he began to have some physical symptoms.
The symptoms were hard for his wife to handle. Well, she [the wife] called 911. The
guy ended up being taken by 911 to a local Portland hospital. Revived. In the middle
of it. And taken to a local nursing facility. I dont know if he went back home. He died
shortly some period of time after that time. (49)
During the campaign to legalize euthanasia in Australias Northern Territory, supporters
painted pictures of a calm, peaceful death with the patient surrounded by loved ones.
The Australian law (50) (which was later overturned (51)) legalized both euthanasia and
assisted suicide.
Draft guidelines for its implementation recommended that family members should be
warned that they may wish to leave the room when the patient is being killed since the
death may be very unpleasant to observe. (Lethal injections often cause violent
convulsions and muscle spasms. (52)
Although euthanasia and assisted suicide remained technically illegal in the Netherlands
until 2001, for many years the Royal Dutch Association of Pharmacy has provided
prescribing guidelines to prevent problems and to increase the efficiency of euthanasia
and assisted suicide. Yet there are still a number of complications and problems
reported with such deaths. (53)
Even Dutch euthanasia activists acknowledge these difficulties, stating in their own
euthanasia society publication that, in one out of five cases of euthanasia or medically-
assisted suicide, there are problems or complications. (54)
13. Since euthanasia and assisted suicide take place anyway, isnt it better to
legalize them so theyll be practiced under careful guidelines and so that
doctors will have to report these activities?
That sounds good but it doesnt work. Physicians who do not follow the guidelines will
not report and, even when a physician does report information, there is no way to know
if it is accurate or complete.
For example, the Oregon law requires the Oregon Health Division (OHD) to collect
information and publish an annual statistical report about assisted-suicide deaths. (55)
However, the law contains no penalties for health care providers who fail to report
information to the OHD. Moreover, the OHD has no regulatory authority or resources to
ensure submission of information to its office. (56)
Thus, all information contained in the OHDs official reports is that which has been
provided by the physicians who prescribed the lethal drugs and only that which the
physicians choose to provide.
The OHD even admitted that reporting physicians may have fabricated their versions of
the circumstances surrounding the prescriptions written for patients. For that matter,
the entire account could have been a cock-and-bull story. We assume, however, that
physicians were their usual careful and accurate selves (57) when providing
information.
Furthermore, even if every physician reported each case and did so accurately, there
would be no way to determine whether the deaths were accompanied with problems and
complications since the Oregon law does not require that a physician be present when
the patient dies. According to the tenth annual report issued by OHD, physicians were
present at only 22% of reported deaths during 2007. (58)
In the Netherlands, prior to enactment of the 2001 law, physicians were assured that
they would not be prosecuted for euthanasia or assisted suicide as long as they followed
guidelines and filed a report after the patients death. However, official surveys of Dutch
doctors, in which physicians were granted both immunity and anonymity, revealed that
only 41% of euthanasia and assisted-suicide deaths were reported. (59)
Cases which failed to meet practice guidelines were most likely to go unreported. (60)
14. Isnt euthanasia or assisted suicide sometimes the only way to relieve
excruciating pain?
Quite the contrary. Euthanasia activists exploit the natural fear people have of suffering
and dying. They often claim that, without euthanasia or assisted suicide, people will be
forced to endure unbearable pain:
During a radio debate, T. Patrick Hill (who was then an official of Choice in Dying and
later served on the board of directors of the New York Citizens Committee on Health
Care Decisions) stated that continuing to prohibit euthanasia would, in some
circumstances, abandon the patient to a horrifying death. (61)
Hill acknowledged that even under the best circumstances active euthanasia is indeed a
troubling issue. But he said, I do think there are very restricted circumstances where,
in fact, it is the more humane thing to do rather than not to do. Because, not to do it
would, as I say, be to abandon the patient to unbearable suffering, whether emotional
suffering or physical suffering. (62)
Such irresponsible claims fail to recognize that virtually all pain can be eliminated or
that in those rare cases where it cant be totally eliminated it can be reduced
significantly if proper treatment is provided.
It is a national and international scandal that so many people do not get adequate pain
control. But killing is not the answer to that scandal. The solution is to mandate better
education of health care professionals on these crucial issues, to expand access to health
care, and to inform patients about their rights as consumers.
In 2002, the International Task Force published an important book, Power over Pain,
which is an incredibly valuable tool for people to use in obtaining the pain relief they
need.
Everyone whether a person with a life-threatening illness or a chronic condition has
the right to pain relief. With modern advances in pain control, no patient should ever be
in excruciating pain. However most doctors have never had a course in pain
management so theyre unaware of what to do.
If a patient who is under a doctors care is in excruciating pain, theres definitely a need
to find a different doctor. But that doctor should be one who will control the pain, not
one who will kill the patient.
There are board certified specialists in pain management who can not only help alleviate
physical pain but who are also skilled in providing necessary support to deal with
emotional suffering and depression that often accompany physical pain.
15. Isnt opposition to euthanasia and assisted suicide just an attempt to
impose religious beliefs on others?
No. Right-to-die leaders have attempted for a long time to make it seem that anyone
against euthanasia or assisted suicide is trying to impose his or her religion on others.
But thats not the case.
People on both sides of the euthanasia and assisted suicide controversies claim
membership in religious denominations. There are also individuals on both sides who
claim no religious affiliation at all. But its even more important to realize that these are
not religious issues, nor should this be a religious debate.
The debate over euthanasia and assisted suicide is about public policy and the law.
The fact that the religious convictions of some people parallel what has been long-
standing public policy does not disqualify them from taking a stand on an issue.
For example, there are laws that prohibit sales clerks from stealing company profits.
Although these laws coincide with religious beliefs, it would be absurd to suggest that
such laws should be eliminated. And it would be equally ridiculous to say that a person
who has religious opposition to it shouldnt be able to support laws against stealing.
Similarly, the fact that the religious convictions of some euthanasia and assisted-suicide
opponents parallel what has been long-standing public policy does not disqualify them
from taking a stand on the issues.
Throughout all of modern history, laws have prohibited mercy killing. The need for such
laws has been, and should continue to be, debated on the basis of public policy. And
people of any or no religious belief should have the right to be involved in that debate.
In Washington state, where an attempt to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide by
voter initiative in 1991 failed, polls taken within days of the vote indicated that fewer
than ten percent of those who opposed the measure had done so for religious reasons.
(63)
Voter initiatives have also failed in California, (64), Michigan (65) and Maine. (66) All
failed following significant organized opposition from a coalition of groups including
medical societies, nursing groups, hospice associations, civil rights groups and major
state newspapers.
16. Where does the main support for euthanasia and assisted suicide come
from?
The most visible and vocal proponents of euthanasia and assisted suicide are right-to-
die organizations made up of committed activists who seek to change the laws. But, they
are only able to pursue their agenda because of funding from a handful of extremely
generous sources.
Far from reflecting any grassroots desire, the push for legalization of euthanasia and
assisted suicide is a top down creation where the few seek to change the laws that
affect everyone. (67)
17. Since suicide isnt against the law, why should it be illegal to help
someone commit suicide?
Neither suicide nor attempted suicide is criminalized anywhere in the United States or
in many other countries. This is not because of any right to suicide. When penalties
against attempted suicide were removed, legal scholars made it clear that this was not
done for the purpose of permitting suicide. Instead it was intended to prevent suicide.
Penalties were removed so people could seek help in dealing with the problems theyre
facing without risk of being prosecuted if it were discovered that they had attempted
suicide.
Just as current public policy does not grant a right to be killed to a person who is
suicidal because of a lost business, neither should it permit people to be killed because
they are in despair over their physical or emotional condition. With legalized euthanasia
or assisted suicide, condemned killers would have more rights to have their lives
protected than would vulnerable people who could be pressured and exploited into what
amounts to capital punishment for the crime of being sick, old, disabled or dependent.

Endnotes:
1. Oregons Death with Dignity Act (ORS 127.800-897) passed in November 1994 and
went into effect in 1997. See additional information on Assisted Suicide in Oregon.
Washington approved the Washington Death with Dignity Act on Nov. 4, 2008. See
additional information on Washington. On December 31, 2009, the Montana Supreme
Court determined that physicians could assist patients in ending their lives with a lethal
dose of drugs. See additional information on Montana.
2. Although both euthanasia and assisted suicide had been widely practiced in the
Netherlands, they remained technically illegal until passage of a bill for the Review of
cases of termination of life on request and assistance with suicide was approved in
April 2001. See additional information on Holland. Belgiums law was passed on May
16, 2002. Swiss law states, Whoever, from selfish motives, induces another to commit
suicide or assists him therein shall be punished, if the suicide was successful or
attempted, by confinement in a penitentiary for not more than five years or by
imprisonment. [Article 115 of the Penal Code] [emphasis added]
3. Rights of the Terminally Ill Act, Northern Territory of Australia (1996).
4. Republic of Colombia Constitutional Court, Sentence # c-239/97, Ref. Expedient # D-
1490, May 20, 1997.
5. World Health Organization, 2009.
6. In 2005, suicide took the lives of more than 32,000 people 1.6 times as many as
died from homicide. National Center for Health Statistics Center for Disease Control,
2009.
7. World Health Organization, 2009 .
8. U.S. Public Health Service, The Surgeon Generals Call to Action to Prevent Suicide,
Washington,DC, 1999.
9. Merriam-Webster OnLine (2008).
10. Sidney H. Wanzer, M.D. et al., The Physicians Responsibility toward Hopelessly Ill
Patients: A Second Look, 320 The New England Journal of Medicine (March 30, 1989),
p. 848.
11. MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour, PBS, March 30, 1989.
12. Dr. Death: No law is needed on euthanasia, USA Today, October 28, 1992, p. 6A.
Kevorkians attorney, Geoffrey Feiger said, Any disease that curtails life-span is
terminal. Geoffrey Fieger, Letter to the Editor, Detroit Free Press, December 11, 1990.
13. CQ Interview: Arlene Judith Klotzko and Dr. Boudewijn Chabot Discuss Assisted
Suicide in the Absence of Somatic Illness, 4 Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics
(1995), p. 243. A case was brought against Chabot for the 1991 death. On June 21, 1994,
the Supreme Court of the Netherlands ruled that Chabot was guilty but that he would
not be punished. The Chabot case is widely perceived as having expanded the Dutch
guidelines for euthanasia and assisted suicide to include physically healthy psychiatric
patients.
14. Oregon Death with Dignity Act [ORS 127.800 1.01 (12)] and Washington Death
with Dignity Act [Initiative 1000, 1, (13)].
15. Jane Cys, HCFA wont punish doctors for long-living hospice patients, American
Medical News, October 9, 2000.
16. Ibid.
17. Eric Gargett, Changing the Law in South Australia, World Right-to-Die Newsletter,
May 2001, p. 3. (The World Right-to-Die Newsletter is a publication of the World
Federation of Right to Die Societies.)
18. Paul J. van der Maas et al., II Euthanasia and Other Medical Decisions Concerning
the End of Life, (English Translation, the Remmelink Report) (Elvesier 1992), p. 23.
19. Ibid., pp. 23-24.
20. John Griffiths, Alex Bood, Hellen Weyers, Euthanasia and Law in the Netherlands,
(Amsterdam University Press, 1998), p. 295.
21. For full discussion and documentation of the law and practice of euthanasia and
assisted suicide in the Netherlands, see http:www.internationaltaskforce/holland.htm.
22. Margaret Oostvenn, Ik kan me goed voorstellen dat artsen stervenshulp niet
melden, NRC Handelsblad, April 1, 2001.
23. Franklin G. Miller, Timothy E. Quill, Howard Brody, et al., Sounding Board:
Regulating Physician-Assisted Death, 331 New England Journal of Medicine, (July 14,
1994), p. 120.
24. Hemlock Society Press Release, Hemlock Society Comments on Judges Right-to-
Die Bid, December 31, 1998.
25. Charles H. Baron, Clyde Bergstresser, Dan W. Brock, et al., Statute: A Model State
Act to Authorize and Regulate Physician-Assisted Suicide. 33 Harvard Journal on
Legislation, (1996), p. 26. (Emphasis added.)
26. James L. Werth and Debra C. Cobia, Empirically Based Criteria for Rational
Suicide: A Survey of Psychotherapists, 25 Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior,
(1995), p. 238. (Emphasis added.)
27. Although Delury originally claimed that his wife had died of a pill overdose, he later
admitted that, after giving her a drug laced drink, he put two plastic bags over her head,
secured them with a ribbon around her neck and watched as her breathing slowly
stopped. [Seth Gitell, "Delury Put Bag over Lebov's Head during Course of 'Assisted
Suicide,'" Forward, May 9, 1997, p. 1; Thomas Maier, "State Probes Suicide Memoir:
Attorney general to test book's profits under Son of Sam law," Newsday, June 19, 1997;
Dateline NBC, June 30, 1997.] See additional information on Delury.
28. Transcript of May 7, 1996 taped presentation at American Psychiatric Association
Annual Meeting, Tapes number 96APA-S52A and 96APA-S52B, Assisted Suicide
Discussed, Part 1 and Assisted Suicide Discussed, Part 2, produced for APA by
Mobiltape Co., Inc.
29. Zurich Declaration on Assisted Dying, signed on October 14, 1998 at the 12th
International Conference of the World Federation of Right to Die Societies, held on
October 12-15, 1998 in Zurich, Switzerland. For the full text, see Zurich Declaration.
Among the signers were Richard MacDonald, M.D., Medical Director of the Hemlock
Society; Australian physician Philip Nitschke; and British Dr. Michael Irwin of the
United Kingdom.
30. Dignity in Dying Bill 2001, South Australian Parliament, introduced on March 14,
2001 by Australian Democrats state deputy leader Sandra Kanck. (Emphasis added.)
Kanck acknowledged that the bill was drafted in large part by the South Australian
Voluntary Euthanasia Society (SAVES). [Extract from Hansard, Legislative Council, 14
March 2001.
31. Medical Decisions About the End of Life, I. Report of the Committee to Study the
Medical Practice Concerning Euthanasia. (Volume 1 of 2), (The Hague, September 19,
1991) p. 15. (Also known as the "Remmelink Report.")
32. Herbert Hendin, "Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the Netherlands:
Lessons from the Dutch," 277 Journal of the American Medical Association, (June 4,
1997), p. 1720-1722
33. Erin Barnett, "A family struggle: Is Mom capable of choosing to die?" Oregonian,
October 17, 1999. See additional information on Kate Cheney.
34. Transcript of Oral Arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington v.
Glucksberg, (No. 96-110), 143 Chicago Daily Law Bulletin (January 10, 1997), p. 2.
35. See: "Ethnicity and Analgesic Practice," 34 Annals of Emergency Medicine (January
2000), pp. 11-16; Sheryl Stolberg, "Study Finds Pain of Oldest Is Ignored in Nursing
Homes," New York Times, June 17, 1998; "Management of Pain in Elderly Patients with
Cancer," 279 Journal of the American Medical Association, (1998), pp. 1877-1882;
Charles Cleeland et al., "Pain and Treatment of Pain in Minority Patients with Cancer,"
127 Annals of Internal Medicine (1997), pp. 813-816; and American College of
Physicians & American Society of Internal Medicine, "Report: No Health insurance? It's
Enough to Make You Sick - Scientific Research Linking the Lack of Health Coverage to
Poor Health," (November 30, 1990).
36. For a thorough discussion of the changes that are taking place in the delivery of
health care, see: Wesley J. Smith, Culture of Death: The Assault on Medical Ethics in
America, (Encounter Books 2000).
37. KATU TV, Portland, OR; July 31, 2008.
38. "Clinic gets contract to treat Canadian patients," Associated Press, January 23,
2000.
39. "Rationing 'only option' for NHS," BBC New Online, February 7, 2001. .
40. Lorraine Fraser, "NHS patients 'die without proper care or pain relief,'" Electronic
Telegraph (London), May 27, 2001. .
41. Erin Barnett, "Suicide coverage passes review," Oregonian, April 26, 1999.
42. Dan Postrel, "State could cover assisted suicide," Statesman-Journal (Salem, OR),
December 1, 1994.
43. Oregon "Death with Dignity Act" [ORS 127.890 4.02 (2)] and Washington Death
with Dignity Act [Initiative 1000, 20, (2)].
44. Death with Dignity Act: Annual Report, Year 10(March 2008), Table 1.
45. The greeting card was from Grief Songs Greeting Cards. It was described on the
program and purchased at Reforming the Law: The 5th National Conference on
Voluntary Euthanasia, sponsored by the National Hemlock Society and the Metro
Denver Hemlock Society, November 15 and 16, 1991 in Denver, Colorado. Card on file at
International Task Force office.
46. Oregons Assisted Suicide Law, ABC News Nightline, December 7, 1994. Geoffrey
Fieger (Jack Kevorkians attorney) and Dr. Peter Goodwin (medical director for
Compassion in Dying, advisory board member of Hemlock, professor at Oregon Health
Sciences University, and a principal proponent of Oregons assisted suicide law) both
agreed that the Oregon law would permit use of an assisted suicide device such as that
developed by Jack Kevorkian. Kevorkians device, used in most of the known deaths in
which he participated, resulted in the victims death by carbon monoxide poisoning.
47. Derek Humphry (co-founder of the Hemlock Society and author of the suicide
manual, Final Exit), Letter to the Editor, New York Times, December 3, 1994 and Mark
OKeefe, Dutch researcher warns of lingering deaths, The Sunday Oregonian,
December 4, 1994.
48. Erin Barnett, Dilemma of Assisted Suicide: When? Oregonian, January 17, 1999
and Erin Barnett, Man with ALS makes up his mind to die, Oregonian, March 11, 1999.
For more information on Matheny, see Oregon death.
49. Catherine Hamilton, The Oregon Report: Whats Hiding behind the Numbers?
Brainstorm, March 2000. Accessed at http://www.brainstorm.com. Hamilton was
present at the class which she audiotaped. The revelations made at the class were also
discussed on Portlands KXL Radio and in the Oregonian. [David Reinhard, "The pills
don't kill: The case, First of two parts, Oregonian, March 23, 2000 and David Reinhard,
"The pills don't kill: The case, Second of two parts," Oregonian, March 26, 2000.] For
more information on 911 call case, see third case.
50. Rights of the Terminally Ill Act, Northern Territory of Australia (1996).
51. Karen Middleton, Right-to-die law overruled, The Age (Australia), March 25, 1997.
52. Rights of the Terminally Ill Regulations, Northern Territory of Australia (1996);
Maria Ceresa, Euthanasia may be agonising to watch: guidelines, Australian, March
22, 1996; Gail Alcorn, Spasms warning on mercy killings, Sydney Morning Herald,
March 22, 1996; Geoffrey Lee Martin, 22 steps to legalised euthanasia, Electronic
Telegraph, May 27, 1996.
53. Johanna H. Groenewoud, et al., Clinical Problems with the Performance of
Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide in the Netherlands, 342 New England
Journal of Medicine (February 24, 2000), pp. 553-555.
54. Beatrijs Trip, Summary of Interview with former professor of pharmacology and
hospital doctor, Dr. Jan Glerum, from Relevant, Volume 26, Number 3, July 2000,
posted on World Federation of Right to Die Societies web site . Dr. Glerum is described
in the summary as a pharmacist and hospital doctor who was often involved with
euthanasia and in the attempts of people to kill themselves.
55. Oregon Death with Dignity Act, (ORS 127.865 3.11).
56. Linda Prager, Details emerge on Oregons first assisted suicides, American Medical
News, September 7, 1998.
57. Oregon Health Division, CD Summary, (March 16, 1999), p. 2.
58. Death with Dignity Act: Annual Report, Year Ten (March 2008), Table 1.
59. G. van der Wal, P. J. van der Maas, J. M. Bosma, et al., Evaluation of the
notification procedure for physician-assisted deaths in the Netherlands, 335 New
England Journal of Medicine (November 28, 1996), p. 1706.
60. Ibid., p. 1710.
61. Transcript from audio tape of On Target, WVON Radio (Chicago). Debate between
Rita Marker and T. Patrick Hill, September 26, 1993.
62. Ibid.
63. Tracking polls on Initiative 119, conducted by Hebert Research, October 31, 1991,
and within one week following the November 5, 1991 vote. Five days before the vote only
9.7 percent of those opposing the measure cited religious reasons for their opposition.
Following the measures defeat, individuals who had previously indicated support for
Initiative 119 were again surveyed. Of these previous supporters, 15 percent
subsequently opposed the initiative. Religious reasons accounted for only 6.1 percent of
this eventual opposition.
64. Californias Death with Dignity Initiative (Proposition 161, 1992).
65. Michigans assisted suicide initiative (Proposal B, 1998).
66. Maine Death with Dignity Act (Question 1, 2000).
67. For a discussion of this phenomenon, see: R. Marker, Dying for the Cause:
foundation funding for the right-to-die movement, Philanthropy (January/February
2001), pp. 26-29.