8mm
Posted on 05/30/2007 12:21:30 PM PDT by presidio9
More than two-thirds of Americans believe there are circumstances in which a patient should be allowed to die, but they are closely divided on whether it should be legal for a doctor to help terminally ill patients end their own lives by prescribing fatal drugs, a new AP-Ipsos poll finds.
The results were released Tuesday, just days before Dr. Jack Kevorkian is freed from a Michigan prison after serving more than eight years for second-degree murder in the poisoning of a man with Lou Gehrig's disease.
Kevorkian's defiant assisted suicide campaign, which he waged for years before his conviction, fueled nationwide debate about patients' right to die and the role that physicians should play.
Though demonized by his critics as a callous killer, Kevorkian — who is to be released Friday — maintains relatively strong public support. The AP-Ipsos poll found that 53 percent of those surveyed thought he should not have been jailed; 40 percent supported his imprisonment. The results were similar to an ABC News poll in 1999 that found 55 percent disagreeing with his conviction.
The new AP-Ipsos poll asked whether it should be legal for doctors to prescribe lethal drugs to help terminally ill patients end their own lives — a practice currently allowed in Oregon but in no other states. Forty-eight percent said it should be legal; 44 percent said it should be illegal.
More broadly, 68 percent said there are circumstances when a patient should be allowed to die, while 30 percent said doctors and nurses, in all circumstances, should do everything possible to save the life of a patient.
A majority of respondents — 55 percent — said they would not consider ending their own lives if ill with a terminal disease. Thirty-five percent said they would consider that option.
Oregon's physician-assisted suicide law took effect in 1997. Through last year, 292 people — mostly stricken with cancer — have died under its provisions, which allow terminally ill, mentally competent adults to administer life-ending medication prescribed by a physician.
In addition to Oregon, three European countries — Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands — authorize assistance by doctors in the deaths of patients.
Oregon's law has been reaffirmed by state voters and has survived intense legal challenges, but has yet to be emulated in any other state. Bills have been defeated by lawmakers in Vermont, Hawaii, Wisconsin and Washington; ballot measures to allow physician-assisted death have lost in Washington, California, Michigan and Maine.
The current battleground is California, where a bill similar to Oregon's law is moving through the legislature. Even if it were to win final passage, there is uncertainty whether Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would sign it; he recently suggested the issue should go directly to voters as a ballot initiative.
Assemblywoman Patty Berg, a co-author of the bill, said it gives a terminally ill patient "the power to chose the time, place and circumstances of their death." She contended that most Californians support the measure, but that it faces tough opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, some conservative Protestant churches, and the California Medical Association.
"Physicians look at it as the ultimate abandonment of a patient," said medical association spokesman Ron Lopp. "That's not the physician's role, to aggressively hasten death."
The AP-Ipsos poll showed that religious faith is a significant factor in views on the subject.
Only 34 percent of those who attend religious services at least once a week think it should be legal for doctors to help terminally ill patients end their own lives. In contrast, 70 percent of those who never attend religious services thought the practice should be legal.
Just 23 percent of those who attend religious services at least weekly would consider ending their own lives if terminally ill, compared to 49 percent of those who never attend religious services.
There also was a divide along partisan lines, with 57 percent of Democrats saying it should be legal for doctors to help terminally ill patients end their own lives compared to 39 percent of Republicans. Similarly, 56 percent of Republicans felt Kevorkian should have been jailed, compared to 31 percent of Democrats.
Men were more likely to say they would consider ending their own lives if faced with a terminal illness — 43 percent of men would consider the option, compared to just 28 percent of women. And 53 percent of men think it should be legal for doctors to help end the lives of terminally ill patients, compared to 44 percent of women.
Southerners and Midwesterners are most likely to oppose assisted suicide. The poll found that 59 percent of Northeasterners feel the practice should be legal, compared with 52 percent in the West, 45 percent in the Midwest, and 43 percent in the South.
The AP-Ipsos poll involved telephone interviews with 1,000 randomly chosen adults from May 22-24. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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Dr. Death is rejoining society. Here we go again! Right to life means just that. Keeping someone on life support to artificially keep them alive and pulling the plug is one matter. Giving medication to actually force the death or suicide is quite another matter.
The former is allowing someone to die naturally, with dignity. The latter is murder.
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"Right to die" will evolve into "duty to die" and "right to kill inconvenient relatives."
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The right to die will give DNR’s a whole new meaning!
I’m not for suicide.
Nor am I. I not in favor of artificial life support unless there is a chance of recovery.
I think it’s the witnessing of our parents’ suffering that is making boomers determined to give ourselves some options.
Our duty as individuals is to survive and live as long as possible. God will sort everything out. I watched both of my parents die slow painful deaths from cancer and neither one of them gave up or gave in.
I draw a distinction between a sentient person’s willful decision to avoid excruciating pain, and the taking of the life of an inconvenient unborn.
The Lord will take them when HE sees fit and they will be made as comfortable as they want. Comatose if they want, but not dead by my hands. That’s that.
Just you wait. If the Hildabeast becomes President, and we get that lovely National Health Care, people will be bumped off like they were in the Netherlands. Afterall, the government will ration their quality of life was poor or their death was likely near, so it will save expenses to kill them.
Of course you will notice in the interview that nonreligious and Democrats are the ones that primarily support Kevorkian and assisted suicide. That doesn’t surprise me at all.
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