While suicide is not exactly a "lifeboat," it is certainly a form of opting out. In a world of harsh scarcity, an increasing number of people may choose this option. A peaceful death under circumstances of one's own choosing may look quite attractive when compared with a death by slow starvation. – Editors

• Suicide took the lives of 30,622 people in 2001 (CDC 2004).
• In 2002, 132,353 individuals were hospitalized following suicide attempts; 116,639 were treated in emergency departments and released (CDC 2004).
• In 2001, 55% of suicides were committed with a firearm (Anderson and Smith 2003).
• Males are four times more likely to die from suicide than females (CDC 2004).
• Suicide rates are highest among Whites and second highest among American Indian and Native Alaskan men (CDC 2004).
• Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people ages 15 to 24.

Dying Well Network: Death with Dignity

"Man is born with death in his hand. We all will die. We may be able to postpone death but we cannot avoid it. We all die of something, somewhere, somehow. Although we cannot avoid death, we can control the death caused by a terminal illness. We can determine how, when, where, and with whom we die. That is what this book is all about: Controlling dying and thereby dying well.

Acceptance of death increases the quality of life a terminally ill person has remaining. A terminally ill person lives better knowing that he or she may exercise control over the physical pain, the psychological agony and the financial devastation of dying. As founder and president of Dying Well Network, I have been with terminally ill persons as they hastened their death. Just before death each of them has expressed deep gratitude and a belief that he or she got to live better and possibly longer because of the option to control the time and method of dying. Each died well."

"Founded as The Hemlock Society in 1980, our organization has one core goal: to assure freedom of choice at the end of life. As part of the full spectrum of this choice, we advocate for the right of terminally ill, mentally competent adults to hasten death under careful safeguards. We believe that each of us is entitled to choose within the law both how we live and how we die."

Colleen Chooses Death

"The ones who do hasten their deaths follow a pattern: They are generally self-reliant, accomplished individuals who personify Oregon's pioneer spirit. 'This is a group of people whose life experiences make them value control,' says Linda Ganzini, an OHSU psychiatry professor who has studied the issue. 'They often associate being cared for by somebody as humiliating. They develop this fierce individualism. In Oregon, they're admired for those characteristics.' For people like this, the prospect of spending their last days in a morphine haze, soiling their bedsheets and being turned over by nurses, is worse than death itself. 'It's not that their pain can't be controlled,' says Katrina Hedberg, a medical epidemiologist for the Oregon Department of Human Services. 'It's that to control it they give up what makes their life meaningful.'"

Former Supporter of Doctor-Assisted Suicide Changes Her Mind

"In 1992, Diane Meier, M.D., co-authored some of the first guidelines for doctor-assisted suicide. 'My sense was that patients were the only ones who knew what was best for them,' says Meier, director of the palliative care program at New York's Mount Sinai School of Medicine. 'The medical profession's opposition to physician-assisted suicide seemed breathtakingly arrogant.'

In the decade since, Meier has become one of the premier opponents of death-with-dignity laws. She now believes that existential despair, not physical pain, is what motivates many patients to end their lives – and that most doctors are ill-equipped to deal with the psychological components of serious illness."

The Suicide Machine

"Jack Kevorkian has built a device he calls the 'suicide machine.' It has three canisters or bottles mounted on a metal frame, about six inches wide by 18 inches high. Each bottle has a syringe that connects to a single IV line in the person's arm."

Talking about Your Final Wishes

"When you were born, your parents spent nine months preparing for your birth. This same kind of planning should be applied at the end of life. Talking and planning for death are the very acts that may allow you to live a fuller and more comfortable life in your final days."

Disclaimer: This web site is intended to be an information clearinghouse for Americans and others seeking information about opting out. The creators of this web site do not necessarily endorse or approve of every choice offered.

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