麻豆传媒

THE fight to legalise doctor-assisted suicide for people who are terminally ill will take centre stage in the US this year, with bills filed in 20 states plus the District of Columbia.

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 a watershed year,鈥� says , head of the non-profit Death with Dignity, based in Portland, Oregon, which campaigns for doctors to be able to prescribe lethal doses of barbiturates to terminally ill people. The practice is already legal or has been decriminalised in .

Sandeen says public opinion may have shifted significantly after Brittany Maynard, a 29-year-old with terminal brain cancer, moved to Oregon last year, where doctor-assisted suicide is legal. in which she explained her reasons for choosing assisted suicide has been watched over 11 million times.

鈥淎 video in which Maynard explains why she chose assisted suicide has been watched 11 million times鈥�

Maynard ended her life in November, but her story has given the existing death-with-dignity movement new momentum. Bills were recently filed in New York and California, two of the country鈥檚 most politically influential states. Assisted suicide has just been legalised in Canada, after similar lawsuits there, although it will be a year before the law takes effect.

The outcome of the legal battles that are likely to ensue in the US are hard to predict. Assisted suicide faces opposition from religious groups as well as disability activists, who say it implies that those who are disabled, old or ill have lives that aren鈥檛 worth living 鈥� and that people could be pressured into it.

Diane Coleman, head of advocacy group , which opposes assisted suicide, says the Oregon Health Authority鈥檚 show the law there isn鈥檛 working as intended. She points to the motives people gave for choosing this option. According to the latest figures, released on 12 February, only a third of people who took a prescribed lethal dose of medication in 2014 cited pain or fear of pain as one of the reasons for doing so.

Supporters of assisted suicide often cite pain as a primary reason why people should have the legal right to die. But the state鈥檚 report showed that people鈥檚 concerns tended toward loss of autonomy (91 per cent), loss of dignity (71 per cent) or being a burden on their family (40 per cent). Coleman is particularly concerned that people are choosing assisted suicide because they feel they are a burden. 鈥淭o me that feels more like a duty to die than a choice to die,鈥� she says.

What鈥檚 more, according to the data available for Oregon, some people waited longer than six months between asking for the overdose and taking it. It isn鈥檛 stated how many times this happened, but at least some people lived a few years after obtaining the drugs. Coleman is concerned that this means people are being accepted for assisted suicide who don鈥檛 meet the criteria of having . 鈥淭hose people were not actually terminally ill,鈥� she says.

Sandeen, however, says that while doctors sometimes underestimate how long people have to live, this is rare. She adds that the small number of people choosing assisted suicide 鈥� 105 in Oregon last year out of a population of around 4 million 鈥� is reassuring. 鈥淭hat should give other states solace that they will have the same experience 鈥� that it will be a rarely used option.鈥�

In the UK, the Supreme Court ruled last year that parliament should re-examine the issue as there is a 鈥渞eal prospect鈥� of a future legal challenge succeeding. 鈥淭here鈥檚 an appetite for this now,鈥� says Jacky Davis, chair of .

This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淯S states grapple with the right to die鈥�