Assisted Suicide Controversy
Should doctors help the dying to end their lives?
By Richard L. Worsnop

Everyone dreads dying alone, incapacitated and in excruciating pain. But should a person in such circumstances have the right to commit suicide with the help of others? The question has long stirred heated debate among religious leaders, jurists and medical ethicists. Pope John Paul II issued an encyclical letter in March strongly condemning the practice. And the U.S. Supreme Court recently refused. . . .

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Should active euthanasia be legalized?

Cheryl K. Smith Former Staff Attorney, Hemlock Society U.S.A.,. From ABA Journal, April 1993.	Yale Kamisar Professor of Law, University of Michigan,. From ABA Journal, April 1993.

How the Public Views Assisted Suicide

It has long been recognized that public opinion polls can be tilted by how the questions are framed. A 1993 national survey conducted for Derek Humphry's Euthanasia Research & Guidance Organization found that support for assisted suicide fell when blunt language like “lethal injection” was used, and rose when vaguer terminology like “death with dignity” was substituted.

In face-to-face interviews in August 1993, pollsters asked 1,000 people if they would vote for an assisted suicide law written in frank language, and another 1,000 if they would vote for a law couched in euphemisms. In each case, the softer language won. The responses to the questions are shown below:

Would you vote for or against a law. . .

. . . that allowed a terminally ill person to choose euthanasia rather than prolonging life?

For 55% Against 27% Depends 12% Don't Know 6%

. . . that allowed a terminally ill person to choose to die with dignity rather than prolonging life?

For 65% Against 20% Depends 11% Don't Know 4%

Would you vote for or against a law. . .

. . . that allowed a terminally ill person to choose physician- aided suicide rather than prolonging life?

For 44% Against 36% Depends 12% Don't Know 8%

. . . that allowed a terminally ill person to choose physician's aid-in-dying rather than prolonging life?

For 51% Against 29% Depends 13% Don't Know 6%

Would you vote for or against a law. . .

. . . that allowed a terminally ill person to choose a lethal injection rather than prolonging life?

For 44% Against 36% Depends 12% Don't Know 8%

. . . that allowed a terminally ill person to die by way of a medical procedure rather than prolonging life?

For 50% Against 29% Depends 13% Don't Know 7%

A poll conducted for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in September 1994 supports the finding that the phrasing of questions has an impact on support or opposition to assisted suicide. Five hundred people were asked if they would support a law allowing terminally ill patients to obtain a physician's prescription for lethal drugs to end their lives. Another 500 were asked if they would support a law allowing physician-assisted suicide.

The vaguer terminology drew slightly more support and significantly less opposition. The results are shown below:

Do you favor a law allowing terminally ill adult patients to obtain . . .

A physician's prescription for lethal drugs to end life?

No, against 47% Unsure 10% Yes, favor 43%

Physician-assisted suicide?

No, against 39% Unsure 15% Yes, favor 46%

Sources: Roper Organization poll for the Euthanasia Research & Guidance Organization, “What's in a Word?” undated; The Tarrance Group for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, “A Survey of Voter Attitudes in the United States,” Sept. 25-28, 1994. The numbers may not add up to 100 percent because of rounding.