Physician-assisted suicide, suicide and euthanasia are often terms that popular media and our opposition use to describe the practice of medical aid in dying. This is misleading and factually incorrect.<\/h2>

Medical aid in dying is fundamentally different from euthanasia.<\/h3>

>While both practices are designed to bring about a peaceful death, the distinction between the two comes down to who administers the means to that peaceful death. Euthanasia is an intentional act by which another person (not the dying person) administers the medication. By contrast medical aid in dying requires the patient to be able to take the medication themselves and therefore always remain in control. Euthanasia is illegal throughout the United States.<\/p>

State legislatures and courts in states where the practice is authorized recognize medical aid in dying as differing from suicide, assisted suicide or euthanasia.<\/h3>

Euthanasia and assisted suicide are\u00a0both illegal in jurisdictions where medical aid in\u00a0dying is authorized. Medical aid-in-dying laws on\u00a0the books in California, Colorado, the District of\u00a0\u00a0Columbia, Hawai\u2018i, Maine, New Mexico, New\u00a0Jersey, Oregon, Vermont and Washington state\u00a0that actions taken in accordance with [the Act]\u00a0do not, for any purpose,\u00a0constitute\u00a0\u00a0suicide or\u00a0assisted suicide. And in Montana, where assisted\u00a0\u00a0suicide is specifically illegal, the Montana Supreme\u00a0Court ruled in\u00a0Baxter v. Montana<\/em>\u00a0that \u201cwe find\u00a0no indication in Montana law that physician aid\u00a0\u00a0in dying provided to terminally ill, mentally\u00a0competent adult patients is against public policy.\u201d<\/div>

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

Leading medical organizations reject the term \u201cphysician-assisted suicide.\u201d<\/h3>

The American Academy of Hospice and\u00a0Palliative Medicine, American Medical Women\u2019s\u00a0\u00a0Association, American Medical Student Association, American Academy of Family Physicians\u00a0and American Public Health Association have all\u00a0adopted policies opposing the use of the terms\u00a0\u00a0\u201csuicide\u201d and \u201cassisted suicide\u201d to describe the\u00a0medical practice of aid in dying.<\/p><\/div>

The most prominent professional society in the United States addressing issues that arise at the interface of law and medicine rejects the term \u201cphysician-assisted suicide.\u201d<\/h3>

The American College of Legal\u00a0Medicine filed an amicus brief before the United\u00a0\u00a0States Supreme Court in 1996 rejecting the term\u00a0and adopted a resolution in 2008 in which they\u00a0\u00a0\u201cpublicly advocat[ed the] elimination of the word\u00a0\u2018suicide\u2019 from the lexicon created by a mentally\u00a0\u00a0competent, though terminally ill, person who\u00a0wishes to be aided in dying.\u201d<\/p><\/div>

Resources<\/h4>

1. Oregon Death With Dignity Act. Oregon Revised Statute. Chapter 127. Enacted October 27, 1997.\u00a0http:\/\/public.health.oregon.gov\/ProviderPartnerResources\/EvaluationResearch\/DeathwithDignityAct\/Pages\/ors.aspx<\/a><\/li>
2. Washington Death With Dignity Act. Complete Chapter 70.245 RCW, Complete Chapter. Enacted November 4, 2008.\u00a0http:\/\/www.wsha.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Death-with-Dignity_i1000-text.pdf<\/a><\/li>
3. Vermont Patient Choice and Control at the End of Life Act. Act 039, Chapter 113. Enacted May 2013.\u00a0http:\/\/www.leg.state.vt.us\/docs\/2014\/Acts\/ACT039.pdf<\/a><\/li>
4. California End of Life Option Act. ABX2-15 End of life. Enacted October 2015.\u00a0http:\/\/leginfo.legislature.ca.gov\/faces\/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201520162AB15<\/a><\/li>
5. Colorado End of Life Options Act. Proposition 106. October 2016. Available from\u00a0http:\/\/www.sos.state.co.us\/pubs\/elections\/Initiatives\/titleBoard\/filings\/2015-2016\/145Final.pdf<\/a><\/li>
6. District of Columbia, Death with Dignity Act, Available from\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/dchealth.dc.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/dc\/sites\/doh\/page_content\/attachments\/Death%20With%20Dignity%20Act.FINAL_.pdf<\/a><\/li>
7. American Public Health Association, Patients\u2019 Rights to Self-Determination at the End of Life. October 28, 2008, Policy No. 20086. Available from\u00a0https:\/\/www.apha.org\/policies-and-advocacy\/public-health-policy-statements\/policy-database\/2014\/07\/29\/13\/28\/patients-rights-to-self-determination-at-the-end-of-life<\/a><\/li>
8. American College of Legal Medicine, ACLM Policy on Aid in Dying. Effective October 6, 2008. Available from\u00a0http:\/\/c.ymcdn.com\/sites\/www.aclm.org\/resource\/collection\/11da4cff-c8bc-4334-90b0-2abbe5748d08\/Policy_On_Aid_In_Dying.pdf?hhSearchTerms=%22%22aid+in+dying%22%22<\/a><\/li>
9. American Medical Women\u2019s Association, Position Paper on Aid in Dying. Approved September 9, 2007.\u00a0https:\/\/www.amwa-doc.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/Medical-Aid-in-Dying-Position-Paper.pdf<\/a><\/li>
10. American Medical Student Association, Principles Regarding Physician Aid in Dying. In: AMSA Preamble, Purposes and Principles, p.79. Available from\u00a0http:\/\/www.amsa.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/PPP-2015.pdf<\/a><\/li>
11. American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, Statement on Physician-Assisted Death. February 14, 2007. Available from\u00a0http:\/\/aahpm.org\/positions\/pad<\/a><\/li>
12. Reisch, T., et al. (1999) Efficacy of Crisis Intervention. J of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention. 20(2): 78-85.<\/li>
13. Linda Ganzini et al., Physicians\u2019 Experiences with the Death With Dignity Act, The New England Journal of Medicine 342 (8); Linda Ganzini et al., Mental Health Outcomes of Family Members of Oregonians Who Request Physician Aid in Dying, 38 J. of Pain and Symptom Management 807 (2009); Linda Ganzini, et al.,Oregon Physicians\u2019 Attitudes About and Experiences With End-of-Life Care Since Passage of the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, J. of the American Medical Association 285 (2001)<\/li>
14. Neil, F.; Physician use of misinformation to speculate \u2018assisted dying suicide contagion\u2019 in Oregon, Journal of Assisted Dying 2016;1(1):1\u20136<\/li>
15. Ann M. Mitchell et al., Complicated Grief in Survivors of Suicide, 25 (1) J. of Crisis and Suicide Prevention 12-18 (2004).<\/li>
16. Orentlicher, D., Pope, T.M., Rich, B.A. (2015) Clinical Criteria for Physician Aid in Dying. Journal of Palliative Medicine. 18(x): 1-4. Available from\u00a0https:\/\/compassionandchoices.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/journal-of-palliative-medicine-clinical-criteria-2015-1.pdf<\/a><\/li><\/ol><\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/section>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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