(Quill, Lo, Brock and 1997, 2101). The patient may have impaired judgement at the time of request, or may be pressured into making it. Suicide attempts are not always successful, and the patient may end up in an emergency room receiving unwanted life-prolonging treatment. While physician-assisted suicide is illegal in most states, there has yet been no successful prosecution for such an act.
In the case of voluntary active euthanasia, the doctor actually administered the lethal dose. This goes contrary to traditional medical prohibitions against intentionally causing death (Quill, Lo and Brock, 1997, p. 2101). The Netherlands is the only country to date where voluntary active euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are openly practiced, regulated, and studied, although the practice remains technically illegal. In the United States, a study showed that four percent of physicians surveyed had received a request for active euthanasia within the year studied, and 24 percent had responded by administering a lethal injection.
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