FREE NEJM E-TOC    HOME   |   SUBSCRIBE   |   CURRENT ISSUE   |   PAST ISSUES   |   COLLECTIONS   |   Search Term  Advanced Search

Sign in | Get NEJM's E-Mail Table of Contents — Free | Subscribe

Previous Volume 328:1573-1576 May 27, 1993 Number 21 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

	Full Text Purchase this article Letters Add to Personal Archive Add to Citation Manager Notify a Friend E-mail When Cited PubMed Citation

Lewis Thomas has noted that doctors "are as frightened and bewildered by the act of death as everyone else"¹. "Death is shocking, dismaying, even terrifying," Thomas has written. "A dying patient is a kind of freak . . . an offense against nature itself"¹. It is thus not surprising that many physicians have difficulty talking candidly with dying patients and caring for them, a reaction that often results in undermedication for pain and expensive and ineffective overtreatment.

American patients know this, and although death is a culture-wide enemy, many Americans fear the process of dying in an impersonal . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Kevorkian and the Suicide Machine

Michigan's Law against Assisted Suicide

Distinguishing between Quill and Kevorkian

The Slippery Slope

The Challenge for Physicians

References

Related Letters:

Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in Michigan
Bachman J. G., Doukas D. J., Lichtenstein R. L., Alcser K. H.
Extract | Full Text  
N Engl J Med 1994; 331:812-813, Sep 22, 1994. Correspondence

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Lindsay, R. A. (2002). Should We Impose Quotas? Evaluating the "Disparate Impact" Argument Against Legalization of Assisted Suicide. J Law Med Ethics 30: 6-16  
• Spindelman, M. S. (2002). Legislating Privilege. J Law Med Ethics 30: 24-33  
• Cooke, M., Gourlay, L., Collette, L., Boccellari, A., Chesney, M. A., Folkman, S. (1998). Informal Caregivers and the Intention to Hasten AIDS-Related Death. Arch Intern Med 158: 69-75 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Back, A. L., Wallace, J. I., Starks, H. E., Pearlman, R. A. (1996). Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in Washington State: Patient Requests and Physician Responses. JAMA 275: 919-925 [Abstract]  
• Alpers, A., Lo, B. (1995). Physician-Assisted Suicide in Oregon: A Bold Experiment. JAMA 274: 483-487 [Abstract]  
• Annas, G. J. (1994). Death by Prescription. NEJM 331: 1240-1243 [Full Text]  
• Bachman, J. G., Doukas, D. J., Lichtenstein, R. L., Alcser, K. H. (1994). Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia in Michigan. NEJM 331: 812-813 [Full Text]  
• Peteet, J. R. (1994). Treating Patients Who Request Assisted Suicide: A Closer Look at the Physician's Role. Arch Fam Med 3: 723-727 [Abstract]  
• Cohen, J. S., Fihn, S. D., Boyko, E. J., Jonsen, A. R., Wood, R. W. (1994). Attitudes toward Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia among Physicians in Washington State. NEJM 331: 89-94 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
• Quill, T. E. (1993). The Ambiguity of Clinical Intentions. NEJM 329: 1039-1040 [Full Text]