Death by the numbers: Physician-assisted suicide

Look closely at the statistics from Oregon and elsewhere that are driving the physician-assisted suicide debate.

Editorial. March 18, 2002.

The same Oregon law that permits physician-assisted suicide also mandates that the state publish yearly statistics on the practice. Leading the figures in the grim box score for 2001, which was released recently, are the 44 deadly prescriptions written and the 21 actually taken. In contrast to the previous year, the number of prescriptions was slightly up while the number of completed suicides was down.

These statistics are the latest contribution to an assisted suicide debate increasingly framed by numbers. A Harris Poll from late last year tells us that 65% of adults agree that "the law should allow doctors to comply with the wishes of a dying patient in severe distress who asks to have his or her life ended," an endorsement that goes beyond assisted suicide and into euthanasia. That and the relatively restrained Oregon numbers, not high enough to prompt a backlash, have left suicide-rights activists exultant.

Yet the Harris Poll's dire "severe distress" wording doesn't necessarily reflect the reality behind the suicide requests in Oregon. There, consistently, it has been patient concern over control that most often results in unlocking the drug cabinet door.

In cases of completed suicides in 2001, concern over losing autonomy was given as a reason 94% of the time and losing control of body functions was mentioned by more than half the patients. They ranked one and three in this year's statistics and in the aggregate totals for the four years the Oregon law has been in effect. Decreased ability to participate in activities that make life enjoyable, a factor in 76% of the cases, holds the No. 2 position. Pain is in a tie for last of the six-item concerns list for 2001, and near the bottom in the aggregate ranking. [...]