“Unintended consequences”: Can legalizing physician-assisted suicide actually result in improved palliative care practices?

In this issue of Palliative & Supportive Care, we are pleased to present recent work from Dr. E.R. Goy et al. (“Oregon hospice nurses and social workers' assessment of physician progress in palliative care over the past 5 years”) regarding their observations of the impact of the legalization of physician-assisted suicide in the state of Oregon. In 1977, Oregon enacted the Death with Dignity Act, which legalized physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. In the past 5 years, a relatively small number of terminally ill patients in Oregon have requested assisted suicide and, after evaluation, were provided with physician assistance (Ganzini et al., 2002).