Two recent Oscar-winning movies, "Million Dollar Baby" and "The Sea Inside," sympathetically portray people seeking to end their own lives. In Florida, the high-profile right-to-die case involving Terri Schiavo, a severely brain-damaged woman, may finally come to an end this month after years of debate.
Also, the U.S. Supreme Court recently said it would review the legality of Oregon's pioneering assisted-suicide law.
It's an extraordinary confluence of events for a stubbornly controversial issue that once again appears to be taking center stage.
Advocates from both sides say Hollywood's portrayal and media coverage are helping their cause: They are either helping the public understand the need for laws protecting assisted death, or cementing the views of those who oppose such laws on ethical or religious grounds.
Either way, the attention comes at a crucial time. This spring, lawmakers in California and Vermont will begin debating assisted-suicide legislation. Although several states have considered legalizing assisted suicide during the last decade, proponents of such laws believe the California and Vermont bills have the best chance of success in years.
Movies such as "Million Dollar Baby" "are connecting with people because they fear they don't have control over how they would die if they found themselves in a situation like that," says Barbara Coombs Lee, co-chief executive of Compassion & Choices, a national advocacy group based in Denver.
Burke Balch, director of medical ethics for the National Right to Life Committee in Washington, D.C., says many people are turned off by the supportive portrayals of suicide in movies and on television. If Schiavo's husband's request to remove her feeding tube is carried out as scheduled March 18, Balch predicts a public backlash.
"The majority of people don't believe it's ethical to help someone die," he says. "They don't condone suicide."
Doctors, legal experts and patients have long been divided on the subject. Michigan pathologist Jack Kevorkian, who is now in prison, symbolized the movement in the 1990s after he assisted in the deaths of dozens of patients. Polls show the majority of Americans favor physician- assisted suicide if it's done under strict supervision and only in specific circumstances. According to a Field Poll released last week, 70% of Californians favor allowing doctors to prescribe life-ending medication to the terminally ill.
