Links to national organizations
supporting aid in dying
Death
with Dignity National Center
Compassion and Choices
American Medical Women's Association
American Public Health Association
American Medical Student Association
American College of Legal Medicine
Annual
reports on the Oregon Death with Dignity law
Oregon
Department of Human Services
Report from Washington State on Death with Dignity Act
Washington State Department of Health
Independent
research on the Oregon experience
New
England Journal of Medicine
JAMA (Journal
of the American Medical Association)
A superb book indicating the various legal options used by persons seeking reduction of suffering at the end of life
To Die Well: Comfort, Calm and Choice in the Last Days of Life, by Sidney Wanzer, M.D. and Joseph Glenmullen, M.D.
Vermont Advance Directive Forms are available on the website of the Vermont Ethics Network.
Poll of Vermonters
Summary of February 2007 Zogby International Poll
A supportive voice from the pulpit
Among prominent advocates of physician aid in
dying, few speak with the credibility of the cloth.
Bishop John Spong does. Read
an interview with Bishop
Spong about hastened dying or his January 2003
speech "Death: A
Friend to be Welcomed, Not an Enemy to be Defeated."
Myths and truths about Death with Dignity legislation
Opponents of death with dignity often rely on scare tactics and misleading
information when attempting to shape public opinion on the issue. For factual
data about Oregon's Death with Dignity law and assisted dying, click here.
Facts about the Hippocratic oath
The Hippocratic Oath, created about 2,500 years ago, is not used today and has not been for many years. To read the oaths used today by medical schools, click here.
The model for the Vermont Death with Dignity
legislation
The Oregon Death with Dignity Act, which legalized physician assisted dying,
took effect in 1997. Since then, annual reports from the state's Department
of Human Services consistently belie every argument advanced by critics of
the law. In the eleven years since the law has been in effect:
- Only 401 terminally ill patients, about 0.15% of total
Oregon deaths during that period, opted for a hastened death.
Of those who took this option in 2008, 80% were in the last stages
of cancer, 98% were receiving hospice care, and 97% died at home.
- Many of those who requested a prescription to die with dignity
did not avail themselves of the law, but they found comfort
in knowing they had the option.
- Individuals opted for a hastened death largely because of
concerns over quality of life and over self-determination of
the manner and timing of death.
More information about the Oregon Death with Dignity
Act and annual reports from the Oregon Department of Human Services
can be found here.
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