In fact, the data shows they’re complementary. Euthanasia is performed, and medication administered, by a trained professional with explicit consent and is illegal in most countries, including the United States. This study, conducted after enactment of Oregon's Death with Dignity Law, examined views on assisted suicide among family members of Oregon cancer patients. My mother and I are both nurses and we were both with my stepfather, a retired neurologist, when he died peacefully in Oregon. In the U.S., Oregon's Death with Dignity Act was the first law of its kind. It came into effect in 1997. I told him that by not telling them the whole truth he was preventing them from going from hoping that the patient lives to hoping that their loved one dies with dignity. EDGECOMB, Maine — Maine's "Death with Dignity" law took effect in September of 2019. Death with dignity must be a normal extension of the rights of the patient enabling him to make a decision about the value of death and life. Death with dignity (i.e., physician-assisted dying) takes place in a completely different context than suicide. The doc said to me that he didn't want to take all hope away. It empowers eligible terminally ill adults to plan peaceful deaths at the times and locations they choose. But death with dignity and access to good palliative care are not mutually exclusive. 5. Of the family caregivers, 69% reported that their relative had died with dignity. Compassion & Choices, a nonprofit working to improve patient rights and individual choice at the end of life, recently reported that Brittany Maynard's advocacy of "death with dignity… Assisted suicide is a process during which the patient plans for administering a medication to themself. The Death with Dignity Act can be abused by family members who, as a way to further their own agenda, can convince their terminally ill relative to opt for euthanasia. In California, 94 percent of the patients who received prescriptions for aid-in-dying drugs in 2018 had health insurance and 88 percent were receiving hospice and/or palliative care. This can be dangerous since there’s no way for the authorities to confirm if a person’s decision to end his life is a voluntary decision or if it is influenced by others. Factors associated with a dignified death in a multivariate regression model were patients feeling peaceful and ready to die, absence of anxiety and depressive mood, presence of fatigue, and a clear explanation by the physician of treatment options during the final months of life. My condolences to Ms. Barkin and her family and my thanks to her for sharing her experience in “Death with Dignity (and Love)” (Reflections, March). Death with Dignity act is based on a growing movement in the United States, which believes that a terminally ill person should have the right to decide when, where, and how his death occurs. 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