Blacks Never -- and Minorities Rarely -- Use Oregon's Assisted Suicide Law

Since Oregon enacted its first-in-the-nation law to allow assisted suicides, 401 people have used the law to take their lives with the help of a physician. Yet, of those deaths, 391 involved white people. None involved African-Americans, just seven people were Asian, two Hispanic and one Native American. A new article in the Journal of Clinical Ethics examines why and finds that 80 percent of terminally ill patients never consider assisted suicide. Patricia King, a law professor at Georgetown University who has written about blacks and assisted suicide, explains that historic African-American values may be at odds with the practice. A combination of distrust of the health care system and pro-life values coming from strong religious views may play a part. LifeNews