Study: Doctor-Assisted Suicide Isn't a Slippery Slope to Abuse

On Sept. 25, the University of Utah issued a press release that says there is no evidence that legalizing doctor-assisted suicide will result in a disproportionate number of vulnerable peoples' lives being ended prematurely by doctors.

Ten vulnerable groups - the elderly, poor, women, minorities, uninsured, minors, chronically ill, less educated, psychiatric patients and those with AIDS - were examined in Oregon and the Netherlands. Although critics argue otherwise, the study led by the University of Utah found that only AIDS patients used doctor-assisted suicide at what it terms "elevated rates."

The study was conducted by U of U bioethicist Margaret Battin; public health physician Agnes van der Heide, of Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam; psychiatrist Linda Ganzini at Oregon Health & Science University, Portland; and physician Gerrit van der Wal and health scientist Bregje Onwuteaka-Philipsen, of the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam. It will be published in the October 2007 issue of the "Journal of Medical Ethics."

The research group examined what is often called the "slippery slope" argument. Critics of doctor-assisted suicide have repeatedly argued that any kind of legalized physician-assisted euthanasia, regardless of how justified and desired by the patient, will be the beginning of a dangerous practice in which "vulnerable people will die in disproportionately large numbers." Specifically, the researchers asked: "Would these patients be pressured, manipulated or forced to request or accept physician-assisted dying by overburdened family members, callous physicians, or institutions or insurers concerned about their own profits?"

Of their findings, Battin said that "fears about the impact on vulnerable people have dominated debate about physician-assisted suicide. We find no evidence to support those fears where this practice already is legal."