Assisted suicide may not increase deaths

PORTLAND — Doctor-assisted suicide in Oregon and the Netherlands does not result in more deaths among certain groups of terminally ill patients such as the poor or the elderly, according to a controversial new study.

The study, led by University of Utah bioethicist Margaret Battin, analyzed nearly a decade of data from Oregon — the only state with an assisted-suicide law — and 20 years in the Netherlands. The results contradict claims by opponents that allowing doctors to help terminally ill patients end their lives would result in more deaths in certain groups.

Critics, however, dismissed the study because Battin failed to disclose she is a member of the advisory board of the Death With Dignity National Center in Portland. The nonprofit defends the Oregon law and coordinates support for legalizing assisted suicide in other states.

"This is a study that, at best, can be referred to as propaganda," wrote Alex Schadenberg, head of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, on the www.lifenews.com Web site.

The study, to be published in the October issue of the Journal of Medical Ethics, looked at 10 groups identified as vulnerable. This included the elderly, the poor, women, minorities, the uninsured, children, the chronically ill, the less educated, AIDS patients and psychiatric patients.

Researchers found that in both Oregon and the Netherlands, the average age of patients who died with a doctor's assistance was 70 years old. Eighty percent of these patients suffered from cancer.

Only AIDS patients appeared to request assisted suicide at higher rates than the general population, researchers said. This higher rate among AIDS patients, however, was for homosexual men in the Netherlands between 1985 and 1995, before more effective drugs became available to control the disease, the study said.

While Battin admitted she should have disclosed her board role, she pointed out that her views on assisted suicide are well-known from her books, numerous articles and public appearances.

She defended the study, saying it draws only on the numbers and demographic data supplied by the state of Oregon and studies in the Netherlands. Three doctors and a public health researcher were co-authors, she said.

Schadenberg said the study itself is flawed because it did not take into account that the Oregon data relied on reports by doctors who write prescriptions at the request of their patients for a fatal overdose.

"It is unlikely that a person prescribing assisted suicide would self-report information that may be considered outside the law," Schadenberg said.