Factors to Consider Before Participating in a Hastened Death: Issues for Medical Professionals

An emerging problem that health professionals face in working with terminally ill patients is how to respond to concerns & conflicts that emerge near the end of life. The issue of physician-assisted suicide has drawn the most attention. Although the ethics of assisted dying have been actively debated by ethicists for decades, the topic is now being discussed with increasing frequency in medical, psychiatric, psychological, & legal journals. Interest has been driven by the interrelationship of changing public opinion, demographics, & the nature of the dying process: admissions of assistance by numerous physicians, & several statewide attempts at legal change, culminating in a successful voters’ initiative in Oregon. (44 refs.)