{"id":166706,"date":"2017-05-29T15:04:21","date_gmt":"2017-05-29T19:04:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=166706"},"modified":"2017-05-28T23:08:56","modified_gmt":"2017-05-29T03:08:56","slug":"new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"New England Journal of Medicine study: People don’t seek assisted suicide to prevent pain"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

Pro-assisted suicide activists often argue for legalization while claiming that people should be able to choose an undignified, pain-free death. People suffering from terminal illnesses should be allowed to die peacefully, they say, as opposed to being forced to endure long, painful deaths filled with suffering and indignity. It certainly tugs at the heartstrings, because who wants to force someone to spend their final days in painful suffering?<\/p>\n

There’s just one problem: most people who seek out assisted suicide aren’t looking to prevent pain, according to a new study from the New England Journal of Medicine<\/a>. The study found that few patients requested assisted suicide because they were unable to control their pain or the symptoms of their disease; instead, most people cited a loss of autonomy as their reason for\u00a0wanting assisted suicide. Other frequent reasons listed were fear of being a burden on others, and not being able to enjoy life.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Those reasons should sound familiar; they’re common among those who are suicidal<\/a>. The only difference is that most of the time, we see suicide as something to be prevented at all costs. But when someone is part of a vulnerable population — those battling disease or mental illness, the disabled, the poor, the elderly — suddenly, we shouldn’t try to prevent their<\/em> suicides. Instead, we are told we should encourage, enable, and abet them.<\/p>\n

Prior studies have had similar results<\/a>\u00a0to the New England Journal of Medicine study. People requesting\u00a0assisted suicide\u00a0while\u00a0fighting terminal illnesses are typically afraid, struggle with hopelessness and clinical depression, and have low family support. When the root causes of their request for assisted suicide are\u00a0treated, then the request is often withdrawn.<\/p>\n

So the question is, why are we so quick to allow assisted suicide for some people, while we fight so valiantly to prevent it for others? Why are some lives worth saving and others are not? Every time a state legalizes assisted suicide, we are agreeing with people who feel that their lives are a burden, that they’re\u00a0no longer worth living. We are telling them that they are right to feel the way that they do, and that their lives aren’t\u00a0worth saving. Suicidal people\u00a0who are at their most vulnerable will have those suicidal thoughts affirmed, and will be given the means to end their lives, while they should<\/em> be told that they are not burdens, that their lives are\u00a0still worthwhile,\u00a0and that they still have dignity.<\/p>\n

All people who are grappling with suicidal thoughts deserve to be given proper treatment. They don’t deserve to have an assisted suicide lobby eagerly hand them fatal prescriptions and then use them as poster children for euthanasia. It’s exploitation, plain and simple. It’s cruel, and it’s wrong. And it must be stopped.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pro-assisted suicide activists often argue for legalization while claiming that people should be able to choose an undignified, pain-free death. People suffering from terminal illnesses should be allowed to die peacefully, they say, as opposed to being forced to endure long, painful deaths filled with suffering and indignity. It certainly tugs at the heartstrings, because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":89148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nNew England Journal of Medicine study: People don't seek assisted suicide to prevent pain<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The study found that few patients requested assisted suicide because they were unable to control their pain or the symptoms of their disease.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New England Journal of Medicine study: People don't seek assisted suicide to prevent pain\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The study found that few patients requested assisted suicide because they were unable to control their pain or the symptoms of their disease.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-05-29T19:04:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-05-29T03:08:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/needle-672.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"672\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"372\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cassy Cooke\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Cassy Cooke\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Cassy Cooke\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392\"},\"headline\":\"New England Journal of Medicine study: People don’t seek assisted suicide to prevent pain\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-29T19:04:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-29T03:08:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/\"},\"wordCount\":477,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Issues\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/\",\"name\":\"New England Journal of Medicine study: People don't seek assisted suicide to prevent pain\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-05-29T19:04:21+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-05-29T03:08:56+00:00\",\"description\":\"The study found that few patients requested assisted suicide because they were unable to control their pain or the symptoms of their disease.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"New England Journal of Medicine study: People don’t seek assisted suicide to prevent pain\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392\",\"name\":\"Cassy Cooke\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Cassy Cooke\"},\"description\":\"Cassy has over 20 years of experience as a writer and editor, most of which have been spent covering pro-life issues like abortion, disability rights, euthanasia, and more.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/cassy-fiano\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"New England Journal of Medicine study: People don't seek assisted suicide to prevent pain","description":"The study found that few patients requested assisted suicide because they were unable to control their pain or the symptoms of their disease.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"New England Journal of Medicine study: People don't seek assisted suicide to prevent pain","og_description":"The study found that few patients requested assisted suicide because they were unable to control their pain or the symptoms of their disease.","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2017-05-29T19:04:21+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-05-29T03:08:56+00:00","og_image":[{"width":672,"height":372,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/needle-672.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cassy Cooke","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Cassy Cooke","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/"},"author":{"name":"Cassy Cooke","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392"},"headline":"New England Journal of Medicine study: People don’t seek assisted suicide to prevent pain","datePublished":"2017-05-29T19:04:21+00:00","dateModified":"2017-05-29T03:08:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/"},"wordCount":477,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Issues"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/","name":"New England Journal of Medicine study: People don't seek assisted suicide to prevent pain","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-05-29T19:04:21+00:00","dateModified":"2017-05-29T03:08:56+00:00","description":"The study found that few patients requested assisted suicide because they were unable to control their pain or the symptoms of their disease.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/new-study-reveals-that-people-do-not-seek-assisted-suicide-to-prevent-pain\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"New England Journal of Medicine study: People don’t seek assisted suicide to prevent pain"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, & Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/16622da192101346f516b7444d125392","name":"Cassy Cooke","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8b602f8210f1a7d948ca1c0dcab11fad?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Cassy Cooke"},"description":"Cassy has over 20 years of experience as a writer and editor, most of which have been spent covering pro-life issues like abortion, disability rights, euthanasia, and more.","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/cassy-fiano\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166706"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166706"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166706\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":166715,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166706\/revisions\/166715"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}