Oregon's Physician-Assisted Suicide Legislation: Troubling Issues for Families

Abstract

An individual autonomy framework, rather than a family framework, has prevailed in the national debate about physician-assisted suicide for the terminally ill. However, the separation of individual andfamily is artificial in the context of life-threatening illness. This article describesfamily issues when terminally ill patients consider physician-assisted suicide. Issues includefamily roles, motives, disagreements, and grief; the problems of misuse of a lethal prescriptive; and failed suicide attempts. For multiple reasons described, thefamilyperspectiveis needed in debates about physician-assisted suicide.