Assisted suicide overestimated

Assisted suicide and euthanasia by physicians in the United States could be overestimated by as much as 20%.

That's because physicians may be unclear as to what constitutes "assisted suicide," says Ezekial Emanuel, MD, one of the researchers who published a report on the overestimation in the August 12 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Asso ci ation. Emanuel is affiliated with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

Researchers asked 355 oncologists about assisted suicide. Of those, 56 said they had participated in physician-assisted suicide or eutha nasia. But after closer examination, 12 did not participate in either one. The physicians "either terminated life-sustaining treatments or increased narcotics for pain relief with the unintended result of hastening a patient's death," the authors conclude.

Additionally, in some instances, patients overdosed on prescribed medications without requesting information or help from their physicians, the researchers point out.

Of the 38 remaining cases, 45% were defined as euthanasia patients, meaning the physician injected or wrote an order for injection to end their lives. And 53% were cases of assisted suicide in which the physician prescribed drugs they knew patients would use to commit suicide.

Recommended safeguards were used in 34% of the cases. Safeguards include:

· having the patient initiate and repeat the request;

· determine if the patient is in extreme physical pain and suffering;

· consult with a colleague.