American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

In the following viewpoint, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) states its opposition to the legalization of physician-assisted suicide (PAS). When patients are treated for depression and provided with quality palliative or hospice care, argues the AFSP, they do not request suicide. The foundation cites studies from the Netherlands (where PAS is technically illegal but physicians are not prosecuted for helping patients to die) that report that in about one thousand cases per year, physicians cause the death of patients without their consent. The AFSP concludes that legalizing assisted suicide would endanger far more patients than it would help.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. In what percent of cases is pain the major reason that patients request suicide, according to the foundation?
2. What position does the American Medical Association...