Nearly seven in 10 Americans support assisted suicide, up a whopping 10 percent over last year, according to new Gallup numbers.
Here's the question Gallup posed this year and last on the controversial subject: "When a person has a disease that cannot be cured and is living in severe pain, do you think doctors should or should not be allowed by law to assist the patient to commit suicide if the patient requests it?"
Note the "by law" phrase. This wasn't just asking folks if they thought it was okay for a doctor to provide assistance, but rather, should it be legal?
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The rise from 58 percent in favor of such a law last year to 68 percent this year is the highest change in the approval rate since Gallup began tracking the issue in 1997. Perhaps more interesting, the approval rate has gone up 17 points since 2013 — suggesting that, as with legalization of marijuana, this issue is about to be resolved, at least in the public's mind.
However, 68 percent of respondents also answered "yes" to the question in 2001. The approval rating gradually fell to its all-time low of 51 percent in 2013. So perhaps this is just an uptick similar to what took place between 1997's 52 percent approval rating, and 2001's 68 percent.
A majority has always supported an assisted suicide law. Not once in the poll's history has the approval rating fallen below 51 percent.
Approval gets less strong with age, the survey showed. This year, 81 percent of those between 18 and 34 years of age supported it; 65 percent of those between 35 and 54; and 61 percent of those 55 and older.
When respondents were asked whether they felt it was morally right or wrong to legalize assisted suicide, the trend line was a bit lower for approval. For instance, the morally approval rating has fallen slightly below 50 percent several times, and the 2015 response of 56 percent was the highest in the poll's history.
Gallup concluded: "Consistent with changing attitudes related to a number of once-controversial social issues, the number of U.S. adults supporting physician-assisted suicide now ties the highest level seen in more than a decade and represents a rebound in support after it receded early this decade. Even the use of the word 'suicide' in the description of medical euthanasia appears not to have tempered national support, a break from past years when its inclusion seemed to make some difference in national perceptions."
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
