The movement to legalize assisted death — also referred to as medical-aid-in-dying, physician-assisted death or physician-assisted suicide — has been around in the United States for more than 40 years.
In 1997, Oregon became the first state to allow terminally ill adults to end their own lives with medication prescribed by a doctor. It is now legal in nine other states as well as the District of Columbia. Proponents of assisted death have argued for the right to choose and for the relief of suffering, while opponents argue for the sanctity of life and the valuation of life dependent on others.
But for the amount of attention the assisted death movement receives, very few people eventually access the lethal medication and follow through with taking it. For guest host Anisa Khalifa, this brings up questions about the implications that the legalization of assisted death has for how Americans think about death and their values for dying.
To answer these questions, she talks with Mara Buchbinder, a medical anthropologist who interviewed patients, doctors and caregivers in Vermont to study how they interpreted assisted death law in the years after it was passed in 2013. Anisa and Mara discuss what folks considered a “good death” and the complex nature of access to assisted death.
Anisa also talks with Harold Braswell, a health care ethics professor, about disability rights and how assisted death fits into the broad scope of end-of-life care. They discuss where more attention can be directed to improve death care and how these efforts can fulfill the desires of both sides of the assisted death debate.
