Physician-assisted suicide

One reason for Roche s success with Dalmane was that it did not share two undesirable features of the barbiturates, the then reigning class of sedatives REM suppression and suicidal potency. The barbiturates are CNS depressants that can induce unconsciousness, but because they have a very low margin of safety they can also shut down the respiratory control system of the brain stem. That is how they kill, and that is why they are still popular in Oregon and other places where individuals are free to elect a definitive end to unbearably unpleasant conscious awareness. Physician-assisted suicide is sometimes accomplished by turning off breathing, by pulling the plug internally as it were. 

U.S. federal district court judge rejects a U.S. Justice Department attempt to overturn Oregon s physician-assisted suicide law. The Justice Department claimed that the state law violated the federal Controlled Substances Act. 

Report of the Task Force on Physician-Assisted Suicide of the Society for Health and Human Values. 1995. Physician-assisted suicide Toward a comprehensive understanding. Academic Medicine 70 583-590. 

S. W. Tolle and L. Snyder. 1996. Physician-assisted suicide revisited comfort and care at the end of life. In L. Snyder, ed., Ethical Choices Case Studies for Medical Practice. Philadelphia American College of Physicians, pp. 17-23. 

Lau HS, Riezebos J, Abas V, Porsius AJ, De Boer A (2000) A nation-wide study on the practice of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide in community and hospital pharmacies in The Netherlands. Pharm World Sci 22(l) 3-9... 

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