The following article was written by Ezekial Emanuel and published in the New York Times on October 27, 2012 under the title: Four Myths About Doctor-Assisted Suicide. You can read the whole article on the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition’s blog here.

1. PAIN The fundamental claim behind arguments for physician-assisted suicide is that most patients who desire it are experiencing excruciating physical pain. The 1996 decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit supporting a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide in Washington State summarized the conventional wisdom: “Americans are living longer, and when they finally succumb to illness, lingering longer, either in great pain or in astuporous, semi-comatose condition that results from the infusion of vast amounts of painkilling medications. “But this view is false. A multitude of studies based on interviews of patients with cancer, AIDS, Lou Gehrig’s disease and other conditions have demonstrated that patients who desire euthanasia (in which a doctor administers a lethal drug) or physician-assisted suicide (in which the patient himself takes the lethal drug prescribed by the physician) tend not to be motivated by pain… Patients themselves say that the primary motive is not to escape physical pain but psychological distress; the main drivers are depression, hopelessness and fear of loss of autonomy and control… Typically, our response to suicidal feelings associated with depression and hopelessness is not to give people the means to end their lives but to offer them counseling and caring.

3. MASS APPEAL A third misconception about assisted suicide is that it will improve the end of life for everyone. After all, death afflicts everyone, and legalized assisted suicide would allow any individual to avoid an excruciatingly painful death. But the fact is that, even in places where physician-assisted suicide is legal, very few people take advantage of it. In Oregon, between 1998 and 2011, 596 patients used physician-assisted suicide — about 0.2 percent of dying patients in the state. In the Netherlands, where euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide have been permitted for more than three decades, fewer than 3 percent of people die by these means… Whom does legalizing assisted suicide really benefit? Well-off, well-educated people, typically suffering from cancer, who are used to controlling everything in their lives — the top 0.2 percent. And who are the people most likely to be abused if assisted suicide is legalized? The poor, poorly educated, dying patients who pose a burden to their relatives.

4. A GOOD DEATH The last misconception about assisted suicide is that it is a quick, painless and guaranteed way to die. But nothing in medicine — not even simple blood draws — is without complications. It turns out that many things can go wrong during an assisted suicide. Patients vomit up the pills they take. They don’t take enough pills. They wake up instead of dying. Patients in the Dutch study vomited up their medications in 7 percent of cases; in 15 percent of cases, patients either did not die or took a very long time to die… Instead of attempting to legalize physician-assisted suicide, we should focus our energies on what really matters: improving care for the dying — ensuring that all patients can openly talk with their physicians and families about their wishes and have access to high-quality palliative or hospice care…