Diane Meier, MD, Director of the Center to Advance Palliative Care, et al. wrote in their 2003 article, "Characteristics of Patients Requesting and Receiving Physician-Assisted Death," that appeared in the Archives of Internal Medicine:
“Of 1902 respondents [physicians involved in care of the seriously ill]…respondents reported 415 requests for aid in dying… Respondents reported honoring 32 requests for prescriptions (40% of 80 requests honored), 43 requests for injections (54%), and 5 nonspecific requests for either type of assistance (6%)…
The majority of acts of physician-assisted death in this study were defined by the survey’s physician respondents as lethal injections (54% of 80 honored requests) as opposed to lethal prescription (40% of honored requests)…both acts were illegal at the time of this survey.”
2003