Terminally ill patients with low incomes or no insurance are often thought to be more likely to request doctor-assisted suicide, but a new study says these assumptions are false.
A study researching physician-assisted suicide in Oregon and the Netherlands, where the practice is legal, shows that patients with low incomes, little education, no health insurance and other “vulnerabilities” are not any more likely to request an early death.
Critics have argued that if physician-assisted suicide were legalized, patients in these groups would be more likely to ask for death and could be easily manipulated by doctors and family members.
Margaret Battin, a U professor in philosophy, gathered four other researchers from different universities and institutions to examine data collected in the Netherlands and Oregon from 1998 to 2006.
“We were interested in whether the data shows evidence of a greater impact on vulnerable groups — we found that except for AIDS patients, none of these 10 vulnerable groups were assisted in dying at a greater rate,” Battin said.
Other “vulnerable” groups listed in the study include ethnic minorities, women, children, the disabled and the mentally ill.
In fact, people with greater economic status and higher levels of education were found to be more likely to agree to physician-assisted suicide.
AIDS patients were found to be 30 times more likely to use physician-assisted suicide than non-AIDS patients. However, the data in Oregon for that chronic disease do not show past 1995. It was around this time that treatments for AIDS were slowly surfacing — changing the disease from a death sentence to a chronic illness.
Researchers believe that new data might show AIDS patients are not more likely to agree to assisted dying.
The Netherlands has practiced voluntary active euthanasia since the 1990s and created a law in 2002 legalizing the practice.
Oregon is the only state in the United States that allows patients to request that doctors administer lethal doses of drugs, letting a patient peacefully die. The patient must be terminally ill, request death and cannot be considered depressed.
One argument against physician-assisted suicide is that it will create a “slippery slope” leading to infanticide for deformed babies and that patients will be influenced in their decision by family pressures or the financial costs of treatment.
Critics are questioning the validity of the new study.
Stephen Drake, a research analyst for Not Dead Yet, a national disability rights group, argues that the researchers ignore the full definition of “slippery slope” — that euthanasia will eventually extend past whom it was intended for.
Drake said for the past few years, the Netherlands have been giving the green light to infanticide.
Battin argues that in the Netherlands, the government hasn’t even made a law concerning infanticide.
“In a legal issue the Dutch tolerate, but don’t prosecute a practice immediately — they wait until they can decide where the borders are,” she said.
Drake also argues that the data being collected are “non-verifiable” and are based on what doctors choose to admit.
“We have a variety of data in our study — doctor’s reports and death certificate reports — which doctors can’t lie about,” Battin said.
Kathryn Tucker, legal affairs director at Compassion and Choices, said that the study is an important piece of work and warns others not to put too much credence on arguments made by organizations like Not Dead Yet.
Battin wouldn’t discuss her opinion on the issue, saying that her view is not relevant to the study.
“Every person has a view about this study, but our research was intended to look for evidence of these 10 groups being vulnerable, not to make a statement on whether it should be legalized or not,” she said.