Minorities, the poor and assisted suicide/euthanasia Supporters of assisted suicide say it would offer a choice to people who want it. But in reality it would victimize minorities and the poor. As disability rights activist Diane Coleman has observed, assisted suicide is promoted primarily by those who are "white, affluent, worried and healthy." “Choice” is an attractive word, but inequity in health care is a harsh reality. Consider the following:* African-American patients with a broken arm or leg are less likely to be given pain medications in the emergency room than white patients with similar injuries and complaints of pain, according to a new study published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine. [Reuters 12/28/99]* African Americans with symptoms of heart problems are only about half as likely to receive the best tests and treatments than their white counterparts. [Submission time 03/31/99; NEJM 02/25/99 ]* African American cancer patients in nursing homes are severely undertreated for pain - some don't even get aspirin. [New York Times 06/17/98; JAMA 06/17/98]* Black and poor Medicare patients are more likely to be discharged from hospitals in unstable conditions. [Contra Costa Times 4/20/94; JAMA 4/20/94]* African-American women receive fewer breast cancer screenings than their counterparts of other races. [Annals of Internal Medicine 8/1/98]* Despite equal Medicare coverage, affluent older white patients often receive better medical care than African-Americans or poor people of all races. [NEJM 12/9/96]* Cancer outpatients who attended clinics that served minority patients were 3 times more likely to be undertreated for pain than patients in other settings. [Annals of Internal Medicine 11/1/97]* African American academics studying bioethical issues have expressed concern that allowing assisted suicide, coupled with new limits on health care, offers new opportunities to victimize minorities: "The People know they don't get the health care they need while they're alive. So what makes them think everything will be more delicate when they're dying?" [Detroit Free Press 02/26/97] .* African Americans account for 35% of reported AIDS cases, but nearly half of all AIDS deaths. [Los Angeles Times 10/10/99]* Psychiatric doctors spend less time with African-American patients than with patients of other races. [San Francisco Chronicle 5/30/96]* African American women die from treatable diseases (e.g. diabetes, hypertension, etc.) at twice the rate of white women, and African American men die at nearly three times the rate of white men.