Further, not one of the 15 people reported that they were forced into the act by severe pain or suffering. Rather, they chose suicide primarily based on a fear of future dependence. For it suggests that a certain disregard for life may be acceptable. Consider how the public would react to the statement that railroad safety should not be an issue because only 11 people died in the recent train wreck in Illinois. When even a small number of deaths become tolerable, we have already started down the slippery slope.
Numbers are one thing.
The circumstances of the suicides are another. He noted that the law is not working as its supporters said it would. Supporters have generally argued for assisted suicide as the last resort when no other pain treatment was effective. At this point, they say, suicide relieves the pain medicine cannot treat. But pain was not the issue for those patients in Oregon.