I think this is a turning point, where people will begin to seriously address this question. But Humphry realizes that legalizing assisted suicide in this country would have to be a first step toward legalizing euthanasia. Voters rejected them. In Oregon, activists wrote an initiative allowing death by prescription, but not euthanasia. Voters approved it in 1994.
Opponents interpret that shift with cynicism.
A push for legalized euthanasia isn't likely soon. Compassion in Dying Federation, whose executive director, Barbara Coombs Lee, helped write Oregon's law, intends to hold the line on keeping lethal injection illegal. Compassion in Dying leaders diverge with Humphry and the Hemlock Society. There's going to be no movement on our part to expand it. Activists have no plan to challenge the law, Eighmey said, because they would not want to risk jeopardizing it.