Physician-Assisted Suicide and Criminal Prosecution: Are Physicians at Risk?

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Volker D. , “Methodological Issues Associated with Studying an Illegal Act: Assisted Dying,” Advances in Nursing Science 27, no. 2 (2004): 117–128 at 117; Meisel A. and Cerminara K. L. , The Right to Die, 3rd ed. (New York: Aspen Publishers, 2004): At 12–35.

Emanuel E. J. , “Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide: A Review of the Empirical Data from the United States.” Archives of Internal Medicine 162 (2002): 142–152; Meisel A. and Cerminara K. L. , The Right to Die, 3rd ed. (New York: Aspen Publishers, 2004): At 12–39.

Meisel A. and Cerminara K. L. , The Right to Die (3rd Ed.) (New York: Aspen Publishers, 2004): at 12–40, 12–47; Chochinov H. M. and Wilson K. G. , “The Euthanasia Debate: Attitudes, Practices, and Psychiatric Considerations,” Canadian Journal of Psychiatry 40, no. 10 (1995): 593–602.

The raw data for this article stems from my earlier research ( Ziegler S. J. , Prosecutors, Palliative Medicine, and Physician-Assisted Death: An Empirical Assessment of the Likelihood of Prosecution Stemming from Opioid and Non-Opioid Administrations, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Washington State University [2003]).

Ziegler S. J. and Lovrich N. P. , “Pain Relief, Prescription Drugs, and Prosecution: A Four-State Survey of Chief Prosecutors,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 31, no. 1 (2003): 75–100.

Spohn C. Beichner D. , and Davis-Frenzel E. , “Prosecutorial Justifications for Sexual Assault Case Rejection: Guarding the Gateway to Justice,” Social Problems 48, no. 2 (2001): 206–235; Albonetti C. A. , “Prosecutorial Discretion: The Effects of Uncertainty,” Law & Society Review 21, no. 2 (1987): 291–313; Jacoby J. E. , The American Prosecutor: A Search for Identity, (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1980).

Jackson R. , “The Federal Prosecutor,” Journal of the American Judicature Society 24 (1940): 18–20.

Alpers A. , “Criminal Act or Palliative Care? Prosecutions Involving the Care of the Dying,” Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics 26, no. 4 (1998): 308–331 at 308.

Volker D. , “Methodological Issues Associated with Studying an Illegal Act: Assisted Dying,” Advances in Nursing Science 27, no. 2 (2004): 117–128 at 117; Meisel A. and Cerminara K. L. , The Right to Die, 3rd ed. (New York: Aspen Publishers, 2004): At 12–11, 12–35; Reid S. T. , Criminal Law, 6th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2004): At 233.

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Liederbach J. Cullen F. T. Sundt J. L. , and Geis G. , “The Criminalization of Physician Violence: Social Control in Transformation,” Justice Quarterly 18, no. 1 (2001): 141–170; Alpers A. , “Criminal Act or Palliative Care? Prosecutions Involving the Care of the Dying,” Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics 26, no. 4 (1998): 308–331 at 309.

Alpers A. , “Criminal Act or Palliative Care? Prosecutions Involving the Care of the Dying,” Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics 26, no. 4 (1998): 308–331; Meisel A. Jernigan J. C. , and Youngner S. J. , “Prosecutors and End-of-Life Decision Making,” Archives of Internal Medicine 159, no. 10 (1999): 1089–1095 at 1094; Ziegler S. J. and Lovrich N. P. , “Pain Relief, Prescription Drugs, and Prosecution: A Four-State Survey of Chief Prosecutors,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 31, no. 1 (2003): 75–100.

Alpers A. , “Criminal Act or Palliative Care? Prosecutions Involving the Care of the Dying,” Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics 26, no. 4 (1998): 308–331; Meisel A. and Cerminara K. L. , The Right to Die, 3rd ed. (New York: Aspen Publishers, 2004): At 12–41; Bucy P. H. , “The Poor Fit of Traditional Evidentiary Doctrine and Sophisticated Crime: An Empirical Analysis of Health Care Fraud Prosecutions,” Fordham Law Review 63 (1994): 383–528 at 386; Ziegler S. J. and Lovrich N. P. , “Pain Relief, Prescription Drugs, and Prosecution: A Four-State Survey of Chief Prosecutors,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 31, no. 1 (2003): 75–100.

Meisel A. Jernigan J. C. , and Youngner S. J. , “Prosecutors and End-of-Life Decision Making,” Archives of Internal Medicine 159, no. 10 (1999): 1089–1095.

Alpers A. , “Criminal Act or Palliative Care? Prosecutions Involving the Care of the Dying,” Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics 26, no. 4 (1998): 308–331.

Meisel A. Jernigan J. C. , and Youngner S. J. , “Prosecutors and End-of-Life Decision Making,” Archives of Internal Medicine 159, no. 10 (1999): 1089–1095.

Meisel A. Jernigan J. C. , and Youngner S. J. , “Prosecutors and End-of-Life Decision Making,” Archives of Internal Medicine 159, no. 10 (1999): 1089–1095.

Alpers A. , “Criminal Act or Palliative Care? Prosecutions Involving the Care of the Dying,” Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics 26, no. 4 (1998): 308–331.

Meisel A. Jernigan J. C. , and Youngner S. J. , “Prosecutors and End-of-Life Decision Making,” Archives of Internal Medicine 159, no. 10 (1999): 1089–1095.

Dillman D. A. , Mail and Internet Surveys: The Tailored Design Method, 2nd ed. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2000).

Washington State University, Pullman, Washington

Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana.

Further details of the methods employed can be found in Ziegler S. J. and Lovrich N. P. , “Pain Relief, Prescription Drugs, and Prosecution: A Four-State Survey of Chief Prosecutors,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 31, no. 1 (2003): 75–100.

Meisel A. Jernigan J. C. , and Youngner S. J. , “Prosecutors and End-of-Life Decision Making,” Archives of Internal Medicine 159, no. 10 (1999): 1089–1095.

Meisel A. Jernigan J. C. , and Youngner S. J. , “Prosecutors and End-of-Life Decision Making,” Archives of Internal Medicine 159, no. 10 (1999): 1089–1095.

Meisel A. Jernigan J. C. , and Youngner S. J. , “Prosecutors and End-of-Life Decision Making,” Archives of Internal Medicine 159, no. 10 (1999): 1089–1095 at 1094.

Meisel A. Jernigan J. C. , and Youngner S. J. , “Prosecutors and End-of-Life Decision Making,” Archives of Internal Medicine 159, no. 10 (1999): 1089–1095 at 1092.

Ziegler S. J. and Lovrich N. P. , “Pain Relief, Prescription Drugs, and Prosecution: A Four-State Survey of Chief Prosecutors,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 31, no. 1 (2003): 75–100.

Ziegler S. J. and Lovrich N. P. , “Pain Relief, Prescription Drugs, and Prosecution: A Four-State Survey of Chief Prosecutors,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 31, no. 1 (2003): 75–100.

Meisel A. Jernigan J. C. , and Youngner S. J. , “Prosecutors and End-of-Life Decision Making,” Archives of Internal Medicine 159, no. 10 (1999): 1089–1095 at 1092.

See, e.g., Meisel A. Jernigan J. C. , and Youngner S. J. , “Prosecutors and End-of-Life Decision Making,” Archives of Internal Medicine 159, no. 10 (1999): 1089–1095 at 1094.

Meisel A. Jernigan J. C. , and Youngner S. J. , “Prosecutors and End-of-Life Decision Making,” Archives of Internal Medicine 159, no. 10 (1999): 1089–1095.

Meisel A. Jernigan J. C. , and Youngner S. J. , “Prosecutors and End-of-Life Decision Making,” Archives of Internal Medicine 159, no. 10 (1999): 1089–1095 at 1093.

Emanuel E. J. , “Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide: A Review of the Empirical Data from the United States”, Archives of Internal Medicine 162 (2002): 142–152; Meisel A. and Cerminara K. L. , The Right to Die, 3rd ed. (New York: Aspen Publishers, 2004): At 12–40.

Liederbach J. Cullen F. T. Sundt J. L. , and Geis G. , “The Criminalization of Physician Violence: Social Control in Transformation,” Justice Quarterly 18, no. 1 (2001): 141–170; Alpers A. , “Criminal Act or Palliative Care? Prosecutions Involving the Care of the Dying,” Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics 26, no. 4 (1998): 308–331.

Meisel A. Jernigan J. C. , and Youngner S. J. , “Prosecutors and End-of-Life Decision Making,” Archives of Internal Medicine 159, no. 10 (1999): 1089–1095, at 1093, 1095.

Meisel A. Jernigan J. C. , and Youngner S. J. , “Prosecutors and End-of-Life Decision Making,” Archives of Internal Medicine 159, no. 10 (1999): 1089–1095, at 1095.

Dillman D. A. , Mail and Internet Surveys: The Tailored Design Method, 2nd ed. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 2000).

Alpers A. , “Criminal Act or Palliative Care? Prosecutions Involving the Care of the Dying,” Journal of Law, Medicine, & Ethics 26, no. 4 (1998): 308–331 at 311.

Meisel A. Jernigan J. C. , and Youngner S. J. , “Prosecutors and End-of-Life Decision Making,” Archives of Internal Medicine 159, no. 10 (1999): 1089–1095, at 1092.

Meisel A. Jernigan J. C. , and Youngner S. J. , “Prosecutors and End-of-Life Decision Making,” Archives of Internal Medicine 159, no. 10 (1999): 1089–1095.

Cox S. J. , “Prosecutorial Discretion: An Overview,” American Criminal Law Review 13, no. 3 (1976): 383–434, at 391.

Spohn C. Beichner D. , and Davis-Frenzel E. , “Prosecutorial Justifications for Sexual Assault Case Rejection: Guarding the Gateway to Justice,” Social Problems 48, no. 2 (2001): 206–235; Frohmann L. , “Convictability and Discordant Locales: Reproducing Race, Class, and Gender Ideologies in Prosecutorial Decisionmaking,” Law & Society Review 31, no. 3 (1997): 531–555; Cox S. J. , “Prosecutorial Discretion: An Overview,” American Criminal Law Review 13, no. 3 (1976): 383–434; Thomas C. W. and Fitch W. A. , “Prosecutorial Decision Making,” American Criminal Law Review 13, no. 3 (1976): 507–559; Albonetti C. A. , “Prosecutorial Discretion: The Effects of Uncertainty,” Law & Society Review 21, no. 2 (1987): 291–313; Miller F. W. , Prosecution: The Decision to Charge a Suspect with a Crime: The Report of the American Bar Foundation's Survey of the Administration of Criminal Justice in the United States (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1969).

See also Ziegler S. J. and Lovrich N. P. , “Pain Relief, Prescription Drugs, and Prosecution: A Four-State Survey of Chief Prosecutors,” Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics 31, no. 1 (2003): 75–100.

Frohmann L. , “Convictability and Discordant Locales: Reproducing Race, Class, and Gender Ideologies in Prosecutorial Decisionmaking,” Law & Society Review 31, no. 3 (1997): 531–555; Jacoby J. E. , The American Prosecutor: A Search for Identity (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1980); Cole G. F. , “The Decision to Prosecute,” Law and Society Review 4, no. 3 (1970): 331–343; Jacoby J. E. , “The Charging Policies of Prosecutors,” in The Prosecutor, McDonald W. F. , ed. (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1979): 75–95.

Finkel N. J. Hurabiell M. L. , and Hughes K. C. , “Right to Die, Euthanasia, and Community Sentiment,” Law and Human Behavior 17, no. 5 (1993): 487–506.

Jesilow P. D. Pontell H. N. , and Geis G. , “Medical Criminals: Physicians and White-Collar Offenses,” Justice Quarterly 2 (1985): 149–65.

Meisel A. and Cerminara K. L. , The Right to Die, 3rd ed. (New York: Aspen Publishers, 2004): at 12–50.