COLDWATER, Mich. — Dr. Jack Kevorkian was released June 1 from a Michigan prison after serving eight years for second-degree murder in the assisted death of a man with Lou Gehrig’s disease, and new polls suggest his cause retains strong support.
At the same time a physician-assisted suicide bill died in the California Legislature June 7, leaving Oregon the only state to have legalized the practice so far.
An Associated Press-Ipsos poll released in late May showed that 53 percent of Americans believe Kevorkian never should have gone to jail for the assisted-suicide campaign he championed in the 1990s; 40 percent supported Kevorkian’s imprisonment.
Just 30 percent of the 1,000 adults questioned agreed that doctors and nurses should do everything possible to save the life of a patient.
More than two-thirds said there are circumstances where a patient should be allowed to die with help.
The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points and was created from interviews conducted May 22–24.
Religion played a part in people’s answers.
Only about one-third of those who attend religious services at least once a week said it should be legal for doctors to help terminally ill patients end their lives. In contrast, 70 percent of those who never attend religious services say doctor-assisted suicide should be legal.
A plurality, 48 percent, said the law should not bar doctors from helping terminally ill patients end their own lives by giving them a prescription for lethal drugs; 44 percent said it should be illegal.
When asked if they would consider ending their own lives if ill with a terminal disease, 55 percent said no.
A Gallup Poll taken earlier in May yielded similar answers on the question of assisted suicide. A majority of 1,003 adults nationally, 56 percent, said doctors should be allowed to legally assist a suffering, terminally ill patient in his or her death if the patient requests it; 49 percent of those surveyed said doctor-assisted suicide is morally acceptable.
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