SAVES is not affiliated with Exit International / Dr Philip Nitschke and opposes the public availability of a 'peaceful pill'.

Reports on the British Social Attitudes Survey reveal that 80 per cent of British people support voluntary euthanasia in prescribed circumstances. Support is strongly determined by issues including levels of suffering and a patient being terminally ill. Voluntary euthanasia has greater support that assisted suicide. The report also notes the heightened public awareness of the issue following wide-ranging publicity around end-of-life issues. The researchers conclude:

The disjuncture between the current law on assisted dying and majority public opinion thus seems unlikely to simply disappear. Pressure to mount further attempts to change the law in some ways at least looks set to continue.

Reference: Lucy Ward and John Carvel, ‘Four out of five want to give doctors right to end life of terminally ill patients in pain’, Guardian, January 24th 2007

Sacramento Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez has announced that he will support a bill to allow terminally ill people to hasten their deaths with lethal prescriptions. This bill would be similar to ‘death with dignity’ legislation which has been previously defeated due to opposition by medical practitioners and the Catholic Church. Nuñez has stated he is "ready to buck my church".

Proponents have argued that the proposal, modeled on the Oregon law, is not about suicide but about ‘how people are going to live the last days of their lives’. Nunez stated that those who would qualify for the drugs are going to die, so the question is really about how much suffering is involved, and ‘how much of that person's dignity is taken away from him or her." A March 2006 survey of Californians (Field Poll) found that 70% supported the right of the terminally ill to have access to life-ending medication. Support was not contingent on race, gender, or religious background.

Reference: Nancy Vogel, Times Staff Writer The Los Angeles Times, reported 15 February 200707

Oregon

The Oregon Death with Dignity Act has been operational for nine years and provides a rarely used option. The Dept Human Resources ninth report shows that 46 people elected to use the Act under strict conditions in 2006. The law is involved in approximately one in every thousand deaths. Many more have the comfort of merely knowing it is available.

Those most likely to avail themselves of the act are aged in their seventies and have terminal cancer.

Reference: Register Guard Editorial ‘A rarely used option’ 11th March 2007.