Before Dr. Jack Kevorkian focused national attention on the issue of assisted suicide by helping a patient commit suicide in 1990, terminally ill patients were dying with the quiet aid of families and doctors in homes and hospitals across the United States. With his suicide machine, Kevorkian changed assisted suicide from a little-discussed practice into a national issue argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Critics of assisted suicide often use the terms assisted suicide and euthanasia interchangeably, but important differences exist between the two practices. During an assisted suicide, the potential suicide victim, generally a terminally ill patient, specifically asks someone––usually a physician, family member, or friend––for help in dying. The helper may provide lethal medication or some other means of dying, but the patient alone is responsible for the final act.

During euthanasia...