Jumping to Dying

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D. Joy Riley, M.D., M.A.

Executive Director

“Jump off!”

“Stop wasting our time, we’ve been here for ages, do us a favor!” the crowd gathered outside the McDonald’s restaurant shouted to the man 50 feet above them.

The 38-year-old, after eleven hours of police negotiation, relented and did not commit suicide. At least one witness was horrified at the crowd’s reaction. The March 2011 Daily Mail titled the story, “Sick Britain: The jeering crowds who urged suicidal man on McDonald’s roof to ‘jump off’.”

That was Britain in 2011. In the United States in 2012, we have our own ...read more

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Physicians and P-AS: Some Things Just Don’t Go Together

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In January, Oregon released their data from 2010 regarding the so-called “Death with Dignity Act.”   The number of people opting for “physician-assisted suicide” (P-AS) has steadily increased since its inception in 1998.  That year, twenty-three persons asked for and received prescriptions for life-ending medications.  Fifteen of those died from the lethal dose of medication; six died from their illnesses, and two survived at least into 1999.  Last year, a total of 65 people died through P-AS in Oregon.  At least, that was the report as of 7 January 2011.  The data set ...read more

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