Choosing Their Time

Steve Mason is ready for death. Since last December, the 65-year-old writer has kept four small bottles of clear liquid Nembutal-- a lethal dose of barbiturates--in his Ashland, Ore., condominium. And at some point in the next few months, when terminal lung cancer has spread to his liver or brain, when his breath is short and he feels too sick to eat or sleep, he will pick a day to gather close friends and family about him. He will give away his belongings and say his goodbyes. "It will be a celebration of life," Mason predicts. "I'd like to hear Satchmo singing What a Wonderful World." When he actually swallows the potion, he expects to slip into unconsciousness and die within minutes. "I've lived my life with dignity," he says. "I want to go out the same way."

A continent away from the political battle that has surrounded Terri Schiavo, a radical experiment in end-of--life policy has unfolded much more quietly over the past seven years. Oregon's Death with Dignity Act, twice approved in statewide voter referendums, is the only statute in the U.S. allowing doctors to write lethal prescriptions for terminally ill patients who want to control the time and place of their death. The law would not affect a case like Schiavo's: patients qualify only if they are fully conscious and able to administer their own overdose. But Oregon represents a new frontier in the right-to-die movement by legalizing--and stringently regulating--a practice deemed a crime in most other states.

Now, in the aftermath of the Schiavo furor, physician-assisted suicide is likely to erupt as the next big conflagration over end-of-life issues. Indeed, things have already begun to heat up. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed last month to take up a Bush Administration challenge to the Oregon law. The White House wants to revoke the license of any doctor who writes a lethal prescription, arguing that federal drug laws trump states' rights to regulate medical practice. Meanwhile, legislative committees in Vermont and California will vote this month on whether to adopt Oregon-style statutes. Other states have considered similar laws. If the polls are to be believed, the public is ready to give such measures a close look.

In a TIME poll conducted last week, 52% of Americans surveyed said they agree with the Oregon law, vs. 41% who did not. In California, where opponents defeated assisted-suicide legislation just six years ago, a Field poll this month showed 70% of residents agreeing that "incurably ill patients have the right to ask for and get life-ending medication." More than two-thirds said they would want their doctor to help them die if they were expected to live less than six months. "People's worst nightmare is that powerful politicians will rob them of a peaceful death," says Barbara Coombs Lee, head of the national advocacy group Compassion and Choices.