Dr. Peg Sandeen, CEO of Death with Dignity was interviewed by the New York Times about her husband’s inability to broach the subject of medical aid in dying with his doctors in the early 1990s just prior to the passing of the Death with Dignity Act in Oregon (link to read the article below).
The article considers the essence of terminology as medical aid in dying, wherein someone chooses not whether but how to die, is fundamentally different from suicide. The development of appropriate terminology was essential to ensure open conversations could happen without shame or judgement as well as to ensure that doctors would not be considered murderers.
Read the article here: The evolution of how we talk about medical aid in dying (deathwithdignity.org)
Oregon