In a follow-up to a previous post, [1] Justices Accept Oregon Case Weighing Assisted Suicide, a new poll out yesterday proclaims "Majorities of U.S. Adults Favor Euthanasia and Physician-Assisted Suicide by More than Two-to-One."

ROCHESTER, N.Y., April 27 /PRNewswire/ — More than two-thirds of U.S. adults think that the law should allow medical euthanasia for dying patients in severe distress who ask to have their lives ended. Two-thirds of the public would like their states to allow physician-assisted suicide as it is currently allowed in Oregon. Furthermore, most people feel that if they were unconscious and unlikely to recover they should not be kept alive on a life-support system. The majorities in favor of Euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide have increased over the last few years.

These are some of the findings of a new Harris Poll of 1,010 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone by Harris Interactive® between April 5 and 10, 2005.

The main findings of the survey are:

• A 70 to 29 percent majority of adults are in favor of a law that would "allow doctors to comply with the wishes of a dying patient in severe distress who asks to have his or her life ended." This is an increase from the 65 to 29 percent majority who felt this way in 2001, but less than the 73 to 24 percent majority who did so in 1993.
• A 67 to 32 percent majority would like their states to allow physician- assisted suicide for terminally ill patients, where (as in Oregon) three very specific conditions are met. This is an increase from the 61 to 34 percent majority in favor of the Oregon law in 2001.
• A 64 to 35 percent majority disagrees with the 1997 Supreme Court ruling that "individuals do not have a constitutional right to doctor-assisted suicide."
• Most people (72 percent) say that, if they had a living will, it would say that if they were unconscious, and, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, they would not regain consciousness, they should be allowed to die and that food and water should be withheld or withdrawn.
• Fully 34 percent of adults report that they have living wills. The majority of these people (62 percent) say that their living wills state that they should not be put on life support systems.

Source/Read more at: [2] Yahoo PR News