Doctor-Assisted Suicide Does not Result in Abuse

Ivanhoe Newswire

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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Doctor-assisted suicide does not seem to be a slippery slope toward abuse of the practice, according to new research.

A University of Utah-led study reveals legalizing physician-assisted suicide in Oregon and the Netherlands did not result in a disproportionate number of deaths among the elderly, poor, women, minorities, uninsured, minors, chronically ill, less educated or psychiatric patients as critics have argued could happen. Of the 10 vulnerable groups analyzed in the study, only AIDS patients used doctor-assisted suicides at elevated rates.

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Researchers analyzed data from Oregon and the Netherlands where it is legal for doctors to help patients end their lives. The study addresses the so-called slippery slope argument raised by critics of doctor-assisted suicide, which is by making it legal for physicians to help certain patients end their lives, vulnerable people will die in disproportionately large numbers.

Results show women, the elderly and uninsured people do not die in disproportionate numbers where doctor-assisted suicide is legal, but AIDS patients do. It also finds the practice does not kill disproportionate numbers of people who are poor, uneducated, racial and ethnic minorities, minors, or those with chronic physical or mental disabilities or chronic but not terminal illnesses. Patients with a psychiatric illness -- including depression and Alzheimers disease -- are also not likely to die disproportionately.

The researchers write, Those who received physician-assisted dying appeared to enjoy comparative social, economic, educational, professional and other privileges. They note, in both Oregon and the Netherlands, those who received a doctors help in dying averaged 70 years old and 80 percent were cancer patients.

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SOURCE: Journal of Medical Ethics, 2007