"This is a historic day for all Coloradans, and an especially tremendous victory for terminally ill adults who worry about horrific suffering in their final days," said Barbara Coombs Lee, president of Denver-based group Compassion and Choices Action Network, who advocated for the law.
Physician-assisted suicide, often mixed up with euthanasia, is different in that the patient makes the decision and acts on their own, with doctors providing the means to terminate their own life. Euthanasia is defined as the process in which a caregiver administers the drugs to the patient, usually through a lethal injection.
While the issue has been debated since 1967, Oregon was the first state to legalize physician-assisted suicide in 1997. Since that time, five other states — Washington, Montana, Vermont, California and now Colorado — have adopted similar legislation. In the rest of the country, physician-assisted suicide is still considered illegal, and can punished with long prison terms.
