This Article  • References  • Full text PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in JAMA  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Ann Alpers, JD; Bernard, MD
University of California, San Francisco

JAMA. 1995;274(24):1912.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

In Reply.

—As the letters from Drs Campbell, Hare, Nelson, Donovan, D'Olimpio, and MacDonald illustrate, physician-assisted suicide continues to divide the medical community and to excite strong passions on both sides of the debate. While we appreciate the efforts of Campbell and his colleagues to distinguish the activities authorized by the Oregon Death With Dignity Act from physician-assisted suicide, we think neither Campbell nor the state can have it both ways. The act allows a physician to provide a patient with a lethal prescription for the specific purpose of the patient's killing himself or herself. If that is not physician-assisted suicide, what is?

The Oregon Death With Dignity Act cannot be ignored because, to use the words of D'Olimpio, it is "a fait accompli," an act accomplished. The fact that a majority of Oregon's voters approved physician-assisted suicide must be accepted as reality. In fact, part of the message from . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?