Attempts to Legalize Euthanasia/Assisted-Suicide in the United States In the United States, Oregon was the first state to legalized doctor-prescribed suicide. At that time, assisted-suicide advocates predicted that there would be a rapid “domino effect,” and other states would soon follow Oregon’s lead. But they were wrong. It took fourteen years before another state legalized the practice, and, even then, only after advocates spent a whole year preparing the campaign and raising millions of dollars to insure the victory they so desperately wanted. That state was Washington, the state consultants said was demographically most like Oregon and, therefore, most likely to favor assisted suicide. In May 2013, Vermont passed an Oregon-style assisted suicide law. But, since Oregon legalized assisted suicide in 1994, many states have rejected assisted-suicide measures, some multiple times. Since January 1994, there have been 136 legislative proposals in 27 states. With the exception of Vermont’s 2013 bill, all bills that are not currently pending were either defeated, tabled for the session, withdrawn by sponsors, or languished with no action taken.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 13:13:29 +0000
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