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The earliest American statute explicitly to outlaw assisting suicide is enacted in New York. It is the Act of Dec. 10, 1828, ch. 20, §4, 1828 N. Y. Laws 19.
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In the 1890’s when morphine had become widely used as an analgesic, Samuel Williams began to advocate the use of these drugs not only to alleviate pain, but to intentionally end a patient’s life.
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In 1905-1906, a bill to legalize euthanasia was defeated in the Ohio legislature by a vote of 79 to 23. In 1906, a similar initiative that would legalize euthanasia not only for terminal adults, but also for 'hideously deformed or idiotic children' was introduced and defeated as well. After 1906, the public interest in euthanasia receded.
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The Black Stork, a feature film from 1917, dramatically expresses the anxieties people had about medicine and disability during this period: disability was equated with disease, doctors claimed absolute authority...
The film was inspired by the sensational case of Dr. Harry Haiselden, a Chicago surgeon who convinced the parents of a newborn with multiple disabilities to let the child die instead of performing surgery that would save its life -
On January 16th, 1938 Charles Francis Potter announces the founding of the National Society for the Legalization of Euthanasia (NSLE), which is soon renamed the Euthanasia Society of America (ESA)
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When an opinion poll in 1950 asked Americans whether they approved of allowing physicians by law to end incurably ill patients' lives by painless means if they and their families requested it, only 36 percent answered 'yes,' approximately 10 percent less than in the late 1930s
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The US Senate Special Commission on Aging (SCA) holds the first national hearings on death with dignity entitled "Death with Dignity: An Inquiry into Related Public Issues
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The American Hospital Association adopts a "Patient's Bill of Rights" which recognizes the right of patients to refuse treatment
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The first American hospice opens in New Haven, Connecticut
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Jack Kevorkian, MD, assists Janet Adkins, a Hemlock Society member, in committing suicide in Michigan. Adkins' death is the first of many suicides in which Dr. Kevorkian assists
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The Oregon Death With Dignity Act is passed, becoming the first law in American history permitting physician-assisted suicide.
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Washington voters approve the Washington Death with Dignity Act (Initiative 1000) making Washington the second US state to legalize physician-assisted suicide
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Montana district judge Dorothy McCarter rules in the case of Baxter v. State of Montana that Montana residents have the legal right to physician assisted suicide, thus making it the third US state to legalize physican aid in dying.
