Ethical Issues

NEJM: Survey Finds Some Physicians Assist Suicides

The first national survey of doctor-assisted suicides shows that 6 percent of doctors responding say they have hastened patients' deaths with lethal injections or prescriptions. The study was conducted by a Mount Sinai School of Medicine researcher and involved 3,102 questionnaires sent to doctors in 1996 -- 1,902 of which were answered anonymously.

  • Five percent of doctors said they had given at least one lethal injection and 3 percent had written a prescription -- some having done both.

  • One-third of doctors said they would write prescriptions for deadly doses and one-quarter would give lethal injections if they were legal.

  • General internists and those who specialize in care of the elderly and patients with lung problems were most likely to help hasten patients' deaths.

  • Opiates such as morphine were the drugs most often given patients to help them die.

While this is the first national survey on the subject, earlier regional surveys or those taken particular medical specialists revealed that between 3 and 13 percent of doctors had assisted patients in suicides.

Sources: Daniel Q. Haney, "6 Percent of Physicians in Survey Say They Have Assisted Patient Suicides," Washington Post, April 23, 1998, and D.E. Meier et al, "A national Survey of Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in the United States," New England Journal of Medicine, April 23, 1998.

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