Euthanasia acceptable to solid majority of Americans: poll

A solid majority, or 69 percent, of Americans believe euthanasia is acceptable, and more than half of them support doctor-assisted suicide, finds a newly-released Gallup poll.

Fifty-one percent of Americans say they would consider ending their own lives if diagnosed with terminal illness, according to the poll.

This is a reversal from the 1940s and 1950s when most Americans regarded such practice as illegal. In 1950, only 36 percent of Americans thought that a doctor can end a patient's life by painless means if the patient requests it.

Americans' continued support to euthanasia comes as the state of California passed its right-to-die law last fall, which allows terminally ill patients who meet certain criteria to ask doctor for a life-ending medication.

California, the most populous U.S. state, joined Oregon, Washington, Vermont, Montana and New Mexico as a small group of states to allow doctor-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients.

Gallup said that since 1973, a majority of Americans have been in favor of accepting doctor-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients if requested.

But the percentage of Americans who accept doctor-assisted suicide when terminally ill has slid by eight points from 2005, when 59 percent of Americans favored the practice.

When asked if the doctor-assisted suicide is morally acceptable, 53 percent say yes while 41 percent say no. This shows that while Americans are solidly comfortable with doctor-assisted suicide, they are more divided on the moral acceptability of this practice.

Over the past 15 years, the highest percentage of Americans saying doctor-assisted suicide is morally acceptable occurred in 2015, at 56 percent, according to Gallup. Endit