Re: “,” June 17 letter to the editor.
Letter-writer Roland Halpern appropriately points out that Oregon, where physician-assisted suicide is legal, does not have the highest rate of suicide in the country. Oregon’s rate is in the top 10 based on 2013 statistics from the Oregon Health Authority. The more relevant statistic is whether a state’s approval of physician-assisted suicide increases the suicide rate. The answer is probably yes. In a study published in the Southern Medical Journal in 2015, the authors found a statistically significant increase in suicide rates in states that had approved physician-assisted suicide compared to those that maintained the prohibition. This has profound public health implications.
Proponents will argue that this is only an association and does not prove causality. However, it is clear from the medical literature that romanticizing suicide (a la Britney Maynard) increases suicide rates. This is known as the “Werther effect.”
Thomas J. Perille, M.D., Englewood
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