Physician-assisted suicide: legal and ethical considerations

As medicine's technical limits have become increasingly clear, Americans seem more willing to address end-of-life decisionmaking. A major development during the 1990s was physician assistance in dying: physician-assisted suicide in Michigan, Oregon's Death with Dignity Act, and developments in Europe, most notably The Netherlands. This evolution toward recognizing the appropriateness of assistance in dying raises legal and ethical issues for physicians and healthcare institutions such as nursing facilities and acute care hospitals. These issues include the effects on providers' values systems, the trust between patient and provider, and the "slippery slope" that voluntary, active assistance in dying will become involuntary, active assistance. This Article addresses the policy issues that institutions must confront in a changing environment.