By Andrew M. Seaman (Reuters Health) – Legalized euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are mainly used by patients with cancer, but remain rare, according to a new analysis of such programs. In the last year alone, California has legalized physician-assisted suicide, Canada legalized both physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, and Colombia performed its first legal euthanasia, said John Urwin, a study author from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. “In order to inform current debates, it’s imperative to understand current laws and practices.” Definitions of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide vary between countries, Urwin and his colleagues write in JAMA.
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Physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia: increasingly legal but still rare