Assisted Suicide

 

DREDF, along with numerous other nationally prominent disability organizations, opposes the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia.

 

On its face, assisted suicide may seem like a humane policy. But on closer inspection, legalization is a serious mistake for many reasons that are not always immediately apparent. Supporters often focus solely on issues of choice and self-determination, but it is crucial to look deeper. For example, assisted suicide would be a deadly mix with our broken, profit-driven health care system.

 

It is imperative to separate our private wishes for what we each may hope to have available for ourselves some day, from the significant dangers to society of legalizing assisted suicide as public policy. Assisted suicide has many unintended harmful consequences.

 

Find out why DREDF regards the legalization of assisted suicide as a dangerous mistake.

See below regarding assisted suicide. Or read about the dangerous campaign by assisted suicide proponents for so-called "End-of-Life-Care / Patients Right to Know Acts."

  1. Read DREDF's statement on the issue

  2. Read Op Eds by Marilyn Golden, DREDF Policy Analyst:

    1. An Op Ed targeted at progressive readers in Beyond Chron, April 12, 2005

    2. An Op Ed in the Sacramento, California Capitol Weekly, April 26, 2007

    3. An Op Ed in the San Jose Mercury News, March 1, 2007

  • See the lists of disability organizations and individuals who oppose the legalization of assisted suicide

    1. See the list of California and national disability organizations

    2. See the list of Washington state and national disability organizations and individuals

    1. See a one-page summary of Some Oregon Abuses and Complications

    2. See a one-page summary of The Risks of Legalization

    3. Read short article by John Ruhl and William Watts, M.D., on the King County Bar Association (Seattle, Washington) website explaining the pitfalls of the new Washington State law.

    4. See three one-page leaflets about assisted suicide in Oregon, compiled by Dr. Paul Longmore, Professor of History, San Francisco State University:

    1. Oregon's Death with Dignity Act and AB 374: Spurious Safeguards

    2. Oregon's Death with Dignity Act and AB 374: Flimsy Reporting, No Regulation

    3. Oregon's Death with Dignity Act: Pro-Suicide Doctors

  • Failed Attempts to Legalize Euthanasia/Assisted Suicide in the United States

  • Read an important new article from the Michigan Law Review, June 2008, entitled "PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE IN OREGON: A MEDICAL PERSPECTIVE" which describes how "seemingly reasonable safeguards for the .. protection of terminally ill patients written into the Oregon law are being circumvented ... primarily [due to] the Oregon Public Health Division, which is charged with monitoring the law."

    The article was written by Dr. Herbert Hendin and Dr. Kathleen Foley. Herbert Hendin is Chief Executive Officer and Medical Director, Suicide Prevention International, and Professor of Psychiatry, New York Medical College. Kathleen Foley is Attending Neurologist, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; Professor of Neurology, Neuroscience, and Clinical Pharmacology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University; and Medical Director, International Palliative Care Initiative of the Open Society Institute.

  • Read another article by Dr. Herbert Hendin about Oregon and the Netherlands in Psychiatric Times.

  • Read testimony by Dr. Gregory Hamilton focusing on problems posed by assisted suicide in Oregon for people with mental health disabilities. Dr. Hamilton is Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and Co-founder of Physicians for Compassionate Care.

  • Read testimony by Dr. Rex Greene to the California Medical Association in 2006. Dr. Greene is the former Medical Director of the Dorothy E. Schneider Cancer Center at Mills Health Center in San Mateo, California; currently a member of the AMA Ethics Council; and a leader in bioethics, health policy and oncology.

  • See a chart showing Theory vs. Practice: Oregon Physician-Assisted Suicide compiled by Dr. Robert Orr, President of the Vermont Alliance for Ethical Health Care.

  • See the website of Not Dead Yet, which represents the disability rights movement's opposition to assisted suicide and euthanasia, including articles such as:

    1. NDY President Diane Coleman's Testimony before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, May 25, 2006

    2. NDY President Diane Coleman's article: Assisted Suicide and Disability: Another Perspective

  • Read Spotlight on Oregon from the International Task Force on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide. Also read The Oregon Experience with Physician-Assisted Suicide prepared by the Vermont Alliance for Ethical Healthcare. Starting about halfway through, this report describes the many Oregon problem cases the media have brought to light.

  • See a 2004 study from the Journal of Palliative Care showing a reduction in the quality of palliative care at end-of-life in Oregon since assisted suicide began.

    1. Press release about the study

    2. The study itself

  • Read the book The Case Against Assisted Suicide - For the Right to End-of-Life Care, edited by Kathleen Foley, M.D., and Herbert Hendin, M.D., John Hopkins University Press, 2002, $26.95 in paperback.

    Two outstanding chapters are:

    1. Chapter 8, "Oregon's Culture of Silence" by Dr. Gregory Hamilton. Dr. Hamilton is Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and Co-founder of Physicians for Compassionate Care.

    2. Chapter 10, "Not Dead Yet" by Diane Coleman, President of Not Dead Yet.