Why It is Necessary to Fight Both Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

In 2000, the New England Journal of Medicine featured an article titled Clinical Problems with the Performance of Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide in the Netherlands. This study analyzed data from 649 cases and found that complications occurred in 7% of the assisted suicide cases, and that problems with completion (such as a longer-than-expected time to death, failure to induce coma, or induction of coma followed by awakening of the patient) occured in 16% of assisted suicide cases. According to the results of the study, “The physician decided to administer a lethal medication in 21 of the cases of assisted suicide (18 percent), which thus became cases of euthanasia. The reasons for this decision included problems with completion (in 12 cases) and the inability of the patient to take all the medications (in 5).” This study shows how the legalization of assisted suicide will inevitably lead to euthanasia because a significant number of assisted suicides fail. In Holland those failed assisted suicides have been completed by lethal injection (ie. euthanasia). True Dignity Vermont