This article represents a first step toward contextualizing the study of physician-assisted suicide (PAS) within the framework of mass communications. An impassioned topic among certain groups, the incidence of PAS is apparently more prevalent than one would suspect. Save for accounts of Jack Kevorkian's activities and a few contested cases, the media were initially silent in this regard. After defining terms and detailing relevant background material, a research proposal is set forth that uses textual analysis to trace the threads of developing accounts. Specifically, coverage of PAS in The New York Times over the past six years is analyzed to glean organizing principles that create cultural meanings for the practice.
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