Assisted suicide in the United States

Assisted suicide is defined as suicide committed with the aid of another person, sometimes a doctor. It applies outside of the medical context as well, assisting a suicidal individual achieve their own death by providing a weapon or other means. “Assisted suicide” has been used to describe medical aid in dying in the United States for terminally ill, mentally capable adults who self-administer medication to shorten their own dying process. The term is often used interchangeably with physician-assisted suicide (PAS), "physician-assisted dying", "physician-assisted death", "aid in dying", "death with dignity", "right to die", "compassionate death", "compassionate dying", "end-of-life choice", and "medical assistance at the end of life".

Assisted suicide is often confused with euthanasia (sometimes called "mercy killing"). In cases of euthanasia the physician administers the means of death, usually a lethal drug. In physician-assisted suicide (PAS) the patient self-administers the means of death.

Physician assisted death or “aid in dying” is legal in six states, Oregon, Washington, Vermont, California, Montana, Colorado and Washington DC. The Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Colorado, California and Washington DC laws expressly state that, “actions taken in accordance with [the Act] shall not, for any purpose, constitute suicide, assisted suicide, mercy killing or homicide, under the law.” This distinguishes the legal act of medical aid in dying from the act of suicide.

The first significant drive to legalize assisted suicide in the United States arose in the early years of the twentieth century. In a 2004 article in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Brown University historian Jacob M. Appel documented extensive political debate over legislation to legalize physician-assisted death in both Iowa and Ohio in 1906. In Ohio, the legislation was inspired by the campaign of heiress Anna S. Hall, whose mother had died a painful death from cancer. Despite Hall’s efforts, the bill was rejected by the Ohio legislature by a vote of 79 to 23.

Dr. Harold Glucksberg, along with four other physicians, three terminally ill patients, and Compassion and Dying, brought a case against the state of Washington for banning assisted suicide. The case was filed in District Court in 1994.

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Wikipedia