As the American population gets older, people begin to plan for what the end of their lives will look like.
It’s a conversation we explored on 1A earlier this year as a part of our ongoing coverage of aging in the United States.
And during that conversation, you had a lot of questions for us about physician-assisted death.
Physician-assisted death was first legalized in Oregon in 1994 and has since expanded to nine other states and Washington D.C.
Since then, more than 5,000 peoplewho qualified have used it to shorten their lives. The overwhelming majority of them were cancer patients. That’s according to an analysis by Rutgers University.
Since the end of Roe, the debate around bodily autonomy has grown increasingly contentious. Especially this year, as several states have loosened their restrictions to make physician-assisted deaths more accessible for those who qualify.
Though its use is still relatively uncommon, the expansion of physician-assisted death as an end-of-life option has brought relief to some families and heightened concern among others.
How do we separate myths from facts when it comes to physician-assisted death? And what does the future of the practice look like in our country?
Copyright 2023 WAMU 88.5