Hospice and Assisted Suicide: the Structure and Process of an Inherent Dilemma

The hospice philosophy makes terminal patients as comfortable as possible but neither hastens nor postpones death. The passage of Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act in 1994 focuses attention on a conflict seemingly inherent in the hospice philosophy. The authors conducted interviews with 60 hospice providers for their response to this. The data reported in this article reflect some of the social & individual influences that come to bear as hospice providers attempt to resolve this dilemma.