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Saturday, April 20, 2013

Physician-Assisted Suicide Program Rarely Used, Study Finds


By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter
Originally published April 10, 2013
Physician-assisted suicide laws can raise controversy and concern with their passage, but a new study from Washington state suggests many of those fears may be unfounded.


Washington's Death With Dignity Act hasn't lead to scores of terminally ill people seeking lethal prescriptions, the researchers report: Almost three years after the law was enacted, just 255 people had obtained a lethal prescription from a physician.

Of those 255 prescriptions, 40 were written for terminal cancer patients at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. And, in the new study, doctors there found that only 60 percent (24 people) of their patients chose to use their prescription to hasten their death.

"Most Americans say that they want to die at home with family members around, not in pain and with their mental faculties as in tact as possible. But, not everyone is achieving that kind of good death. For the rare number of people using the Death With Dignity program, we are reassured by the high numbers of people who use palliative or hospice care and who talk with their families about this decision," said study author Dr. Elizabeth Trice Loggers, medical director of palliative care at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance.

The entire story is here.