Death with Dignity Legislation

Health care professionals are trained to “first do no harm.” In end-of-life treatment, that simple directive can be difficult to interpret. A growing movement to provide patients help in dying has been termed “death with dignity” and “assisted suicide.” Federal law does not address euthanasia and mercy killings in terminal patients; the right of a patient to obtain a prescription to terminate life is established by state law. This map explores which states have enacted death with dignity legislation, which outlaw physician-assisted suicide, which make the practice criminal and which are considering changes to current state policy legalizing the practice under certain circumstances.

Curator 

Elizabeth Ann Glass Geltman, JD, LLM
School of Urban Public Health at Hunter College & CUNY School of Public Health

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1. Does the state have a statute that allows a terminally ill adult the ability to obtain a prescription for a lethal dose of medicine from a physician?
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2. Does the state expressly ban the practice of physician-assisted suicide?
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2.1. Is assisted suicide a crime in the state?
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2.2. If so, what is the type of crime and punishment specified?
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2.3. If so, what is the type of crime and punishment specified?
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3. Is the state considering enacting aid-in-dying legislation?
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