Talk:Assisted death in the United States

Jmlsmal1127's comments
Assisted Suicide is a felony across most of the United States. It is explicitly prohibited by statute in 42 states and prohibited by common law in an additional six states and the District of Columbia. Assisted suicide is also prohibited in every state where where aid in dying, a medical option for terminally ill adults which allows them to shorten the dying process, is authorized. Elected lawmakers across the country have voted for or sponsored laws allowing medical aid in dying, while at the same time maintaining prohibitions on assisted suicide.

Therefore, Medical Aid in Dying and Assisted Suicide or Assisted suicide in the United States merit separate entries in Wikipedia.

Medical aid in dying is a medical practice as per the peer-reviewed Journal of Palliative Medicine and as per the American College of Legal Medicine, American Medical Student Association, American Medical Women’s Association, American Public Health Association, the California Medical Association, the Maryland State Medical Society, Kokua Mau (the Hawaii Medical Society), the Colorado Medical Society, the American Psychological Association, and the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. (see article for references)

Medical Aid in Dying and Assisted Suicide or Assisted suicide in the United States merit separate entries in Wikipedia.

The Columbia Journalism Review recently reported from Colorado, where a years-long debate ended with Colorado voters approving medical aid in dying in November 2016. It showed the trend it away from calling medical aid in dying suicide because suicide is pejojrative and denotes a person who is mentally ill. This is the reason the American Public Health Association notes that “[p]rofound psychological differences distinguish suicide from actions under” laws authorizing medical aid in dying, and concludes “[m]edical and legal experts have recognized that the term “suicide” or “assisted suicide” is inappropriate when discussing the choice of a mentally competent terminally ill patient to seek medications that he or she could consume to bring about a peaceful and dignified death.”

Medical Aid in Dying and Assisted Suicide or Assisted suicide in the United States merit separate entries in Wikipedia.

The Oregon, Washington, Vermont, California and Colorado laws which authorize medical aid in dying expressly state that: “actions taken in accordance with [the Acts] shall not, for any purpose, constitute suicide, assisted suicide, mercy killing or homicide, under the law.” The same is true of aid-in-dying laws currently under debate in 20 or more U.S. states.

For these reasons, I have uploaded a separate entry that properly describes the medical practice of aid in dying in the United States. The current assisted suicide page should remain but only refer to cases of true "assisted suicide."


 * If there's such a clear distinction between medical aid in dying and assisted suicide, then why did you copy the bulk of this article from the existing one, adding, only "controversy" and "public opinion" sections? Largoplazo (talk) 23:22, 17 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Historically many people have called aid in dying “assisted suicide,” so there is overlap. However: 1) as more states pass these laws more people will be researching the actual medical term that’s in all of the legislation, “aid in dying;” 2) there are already complaints on the Assisted Suicide in the US page, in the Talk section, that this distinction matters, and Wiki should reflect that; and 3) as Americans make the transition from “assisted suicide” to “aid in dying” in their terminology – as we have shifted to “climate change,” “people of color” etc. – it helps to have both pages there referring to each other.Jmlsmal1127 (talk) 16:08, 30 November 2016 (UTC)

Thai article seems to be drawing a rather arbitrary distinction between "medical aid in dying" and assisted suicide", that doesn't really seem to hold. On those grounds, I can't see any real justification in keeping this article and the Assisted suicide in the United States article. It does seem that a merge is warranted. - Bilby (talk) 04:50, 27 July 2017 (UTC)

I agree. This article represents the proponents’ point of view. Given the ire over the term “assisted suicide,” perhaps the new article could employ the neutral term “assisted death.” Progo35 (talk) 17:37, 1 June 2018 (UTC)

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Wikipedia is supposed to be a neutral source of information
I submit that this page was inordinately slanted toward a pro assisted death point of view, particularly because it a) Represents the proponents’ view that MAID and assisted suicides are seperate, whereas opponents view them as synonymous, hence the link to the concept of assisted suicides b) the does not include information about which groups and public individuals oppose the practice of assisted death. This made the article incomplete, as the average reader would lack access to vital information regarding the dynamics of the assisted death debate. Without these edits, the article violates wikipedia’s neutral POV policy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:WikiProject_Death and Wiki taskforce on suicide should not support the article in its current form. Progo35 (talk) 16:17, 1 June 2018 (UTC)

Redirect to Assisted suicide in the United States
This page is a direct copy of Assisted suicide in the United States where Progo35 is inserting their POV into the page. See this edit on the Assisted suicide in the United States. The page was copied to this page without consensus, and without giving other editors the time to give their input. I have therefore created a re-direct back to the appropriate page. 8&#61;&#61;8 Boneso (talk) 03:28, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

I disagree with this assessment of my involvement with the afformentioned page. I may have edited the page, but I didn’t write it; it was already there. Wikipedia really should work on creating an article with a title that reflects the controversy on this topic, as there are currently ones on “assisted suicide,” “assisted suicide in the United States” “Euthanasia in the United States,” etc. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Progo35 (talk • contribs) 04:07, 11 June 2018 (UTC)
 * I also can't see the need for this page. They both cover the same topic, and while there are aspects which are covered in more detail in the assisted suicide article, along with aspects in more detail here, the best bet woudl be to just merge the two. The leads of both articles even state that they cover the same material. Is there any real need to split this content over two pages? I'm happy to work at merging the two. - Bilby (talk) 05:50, 11 June 2018 (UTC)


 * Progo35 Wikipedia is not a platform for anyone to express their POV. If a page contains what you consider to be controversial information then you should leave a comment on the talk page and reach a consensus before changing the relevant text.  The insertion of text on a page that is not backed up by references is against WP policy.  Pages that are duplicated or contain similar information should be dealt with appropriately.8&#61;&#61;8 Boneso (talk) 05:54, 11 June 2018 (UTC)


 * Agree with Bilby and Bonesco. Ratel (talk) 07:36, 11 June 2018 (UTC)


 * Merger proposed. See the discussion here.    8&#61;&#61;8 Boneso (talk) 08:30, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

This Page is Not a Copy of "Assisted Suicide" and it is Not Biased in favor of my POV
Assisted suicide is a separate page from this one, which was previously called "Medical Aid in Dying." It's fine for the proponents to understand the latter practice as such, but that is not an appropriate title for a Wikipedia article dealing with such a contentious subject. Prior to my editing, the page did not include *any* information about those who oppose assisted death, which, unlike "medical aid in dying" is a neutral term. The proponents want to call this practice "medical aid in dying;" the opponents want to call it "assisted suicide," so this way, no one "wins" and anyone doing research on this matter (which is what Wikipedia is for) can obtain neutral information about it. Progo35 (talk) 04:40, 11 June 2018 (UTC)

You are correct Progo35. The page is not a copy. I apologise for that error.8&#61;&#61;8 Boneso (talk) 07:38, 11 June 2018 (UTC)


 * This topic is becoming spread over waaay too many pages. Ratel (talk) 07:43, 11 June 2018 (UTC)