As a whole they are opposed to doctor assisted suicide. They feel that healthcare is there to keep people alive and help them, not to kill them. Helping people survive is what they are taught. However, others may comment that keeping someone in unbearable pain is not helping them at all. That helping them would be assisting them in permanently relieving their pain. It all depends on how one would define the word, "help." This is controversy. It is all in the eye of the beholder.

             One group, called The Hemlock Society, is really what began this controversy. They were the first ones to present the issue of doctor-assisted suicide. Derek Humphry founded the Hemlock Society in 1980. It is the oldest and largest organization of it"s kind, consisting of over 27,000 members from across the United States. Hemlock believes that, "People who wish to retain their dignity and choice at the end of life should have the option of a peaceful, gentle, certain and swift death in the company of their loved ones." They feel that this should be done lawfully with legally prescribed drugs as part of the continuum of care between a patient and a doctor. Hemlock does not support anything illegal pertaining to this issue. Hemlock is pushing to change the law so doctor-assisted suicide is allowed. To protect patients and physicians they want a law that allows a dying patient to speed up his/her death with a doctor"s help, with the following safeguards: A terminal diagnosis confirmed by two independent physicians; An evaluation by a mental health professional; A written, witnessed request; A waiting period; Voluntary on the part of the doctor; Revocable by the patient at any time; Medication prescribed by the doctor and self-administered by the patient; No criminal liability for a physician or family member that helps; No effect on insurance; and Monitoring by state health department.