LEGALIZING ASSISTED SUICIDE - VIEWS OF PHYSICIANS IN OREGON

Background. Since the Oregon Death with Dignity Act was passed in Nove mber 1994, physicians in Oregon have faced the prospect of legalized p hysician-assisted suicide. We studied the attitudes and current practi ces of Oregon physicians in relation to assisted suicide. Methods. Fro m March to June 1995, we conducted a cross-sectional mailed survey of all physicians who might be eligible to prescribe a lethal dose of med ication if the Oregon law is upheld, Physicians were asked to complete and return a confidential 56-item questionnaire. Results. Of the 3944 eligible physicians who received the questionnaire, 2761 (70 percent) responded. Sixty percent of the respondents thought physician-assiste d suicide should be legal in some cases, and nearly half (46 percent) might be willing to prescribe a lethal dose of medication if it were l egal to do so; 31 percent of the respondents would be unwilling to do so on moral grounds. Twenty-one percent of the respondents have previo usly received requests for assisted suicide, and 7 percent have compli ed. Half the respondents were not sure what to prescribe for this purp ose, and 83 percent cited financial pressure as a possible reason for such requests. The respondents also expressed concern about complicati ons of suicide attempts and doubts about their ability to predict surv ival at six months accurately. Conclusions. Oregon physicians have a m ore favorable attitude toward legalized physician-assisted suicide, ar e more willing to participate, and are currently participating in grea ter numbers than other surveyed groups of physicians in the United Sta tes. A sizable minority of physicians in Oregon objects to legalizatio n and participation on moral grounds. Regardless of their attitudes, p hysicians had a number of reservations about the practical application s of the act. (C) 1996, Massachusetts Medical Society.