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Nancy K. O'Connor, MD
Red Lake, Minn

JAMA. 1997;278(10):817.

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

To the Editor.

—I have read theoretical proposals concerning guidelines for legalizing euthanasia and preventing unwanted euthanasia from occurring,^1,2 but the article by Dr Hendin and colleagues³ on the reality of what happens is the first major article to question whether this could actually be done. Anecdotal articles⁴ romanticize and idealize euthanasia, yet articles⁵ noting the possibility of misuse against the poor have been largely ignored. Parallel to these developments, the language regarding removing unwanted and futile extraordinary treatment from the dying vs language regarding direct killing has been confused—a confusion exploited in polls (which use ambiguous language, lack statistical validity due to sampling errors, or both⁶) that "show" that most Americans wish to legalize euthanasia or "prove" that euthanasia is already widely performed by health care personnel.

There have, of course, been articles that are "balanced," but even these are commonly written in the . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

Footnotes
Edited by Margaret A. Winker, MD, Senior Editor, and Phil B. Fontanarosa, MD, Senior Editor.

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