ALARMING: Survey claims just over half of Americans support assisted suicide

A recently released Lifeway Research poll (from surveys conducted in August 2024) found that at the time, a slight majority of Americans believed physician-assisted suicide is morally acceptable for terminally ill individuals.

Key Takeaways:

• Lifeway Research surveyed 1,200 Americans online in August of 2024 and found that over half believed it is morally permissible for someone with a terminal disease to seek out assisted suicide.

• Over half also believed it is morally permissible for doctors to help terminally ill patients kill themselves.

• Other countries that have legalized assisted suicide have quickly eroded safeguards and expanded it to individuals who are not terminally ill.

The Details:

The study, "American Views on Assisted Suicide," is an "online survey of 1,200 Americans"
which "was conducted Aug. 14-30, 2024, using a national pre-recruited panel" with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

The results showed:

• 51% of respondents deemed it morally permissible for someone with a painful terminal disease to request a physician’s assistance to terminate their life; 21% indicated they “strongly agree” on this matter

• 55% of respondents felt physicians should be legally allowed to assist patients to end their lives; 25% indicated that they “strongly agree” on this issue 

• 32% found physician-assisted suicide morally unacceptable

• 17% declared they were unsure

Support for assisted-suicide varied according to region, with respondents from urban and coastal areas more in favor (up to 60% in some places) in contrast with their counterparts from rural or Southern states, where resistance to assisted suicide usually went hand-in-hand with religious values, according to Lifeway Research. 

Commentary:

In comments cited by Catholic News Agency (CNA), Scott McConnell, executive director of evangelical research firm Lifeway Research, stated: “Half of Americans seek their own comfort and their own way even in their death, but that doesn’t mean they don’t think twice about the morality of physician-assisted suicide.”

The Patients’ Rights Action Fund, a nonsectarian, nonpartisan group whose goal is “to abolish assisted suicide laws,” slammed such laws as “inherently discriminatory, impossible to safely regulate, and put the most vulnerable members of society at risk of deadly harm,” CNA reported. 

Jessica Rodgers, coalitions director at the Patients’ Rights Action Fund, told CNA, “I certainly don’t see momentum on their side.” Rodgers asserted that as people realize the nature of policies pertaining to legalizing assisted suicide, they tend to resist the practice, and “opposition cuts across the political spectrum.”

Referencing New York Governor Kathy Hochul's delay in signing an assisted suicide bill passed by the state legislature, Rodgers stated, “[Hochul] hears daily from diverse advocates from across the political spectrum asking her to veto. In fact, some of the most passionate opposition to the bill has been Democratic leadership.”

“I see people all over the spectrum who agree on nothing else,” Rodgers elaborated. 

The Bottom Line:

Lifeway's survey was done in August of 2024, and the UK's assisted dying bill was not introduced until the following month. Since that time, there has been significant public debate about the risks of legalizing assisted suicide, especially for vulnerable individuals like those with disabilities. Canada is already a stark example of this, and of how quickly safeguards can be eroded.

“Disability advocates, health care personnel, and members of multiple religious groups have united in their opposition to the laws," noted the Catholic News Agency, "saying legalizing assisted suicide is bad for their communities and bad for patients.”