Similar measures considered in several other states have failed in the state legislature or at the ballot box, while polls show the country still divided on the issue.
Washington, D.C. Ten years have passed since Oregon became the first state in the nation to authorize doctors to assist terminally ill patients in voluntarily ending their lives. Although some predicted the legalization of physician-assisted suicide (also called physician aid in dying) in other states, similar measures have since been defeated in California, Hawaii and […]
The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has assembled a variety of resources on end-of-life issues, including reports, event transcripts, polling data and news clips. Pew Forum and Pew Research Center Resources | Recent News | Other Resources Pew Forum and Pew Research Center Resources Oregon’s ‘Death with Dignity’ Law: 10 Years Later The […]
Ten years ago this month, Oregon enacted a law permitting physicians to prescribe a lethal dose of drugs to certain terminally ill patients, a practice often called physician-assisted suicide. The Death with Dignity Act, which took effect on Oct. 27, 1997, is the only law of its kind in the United States, making it an […]
The debate over physician-assisted suicide is often portrayed as a battle between social or religious conservatives who oppose the practice and liberals or progressives who support it. But not everyone fits neatly into this paradigm. For instance, Dr. Robert P. Jones, who calls himself a progressive, has just written a book urging liberal supporters of […]
That’s the proportion of the U.S. public that believes that it is more important to conduct stem cell research that may result in new medical cures than to avoid destroying the potential life of embryos involved in such research.
April 11, 2007 by David Masci, Senior Research Fellow, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life The 2008 presidential election is still more than a year-and-a-half away, but some issues, such as the war in Iraq and health care, have already begun to define the contest. Others will emerge in the months ahead to catch […]
That’s the percentage of white evangelicals who express support for continuing stem cell research. Although less than half still oppose such research, the latest number represents a 12-point increase over the past year and is easily the highest level of support recorded among evangelicals in the past five years.
by Robert Ruby, Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life November 8, 2006 Voters in South Dakota on Tuesday rejected what would have been the nation’s most restrictive law against abortion, and Arizona became the first state to defeat a ballot initiative to ban same-sex marriage. Of the eight states where bans on gay marriage […]