Abigail Trafford in the Washington Post Health Supplement, March 3, 1993:

Debbie, Diane, Janet. What do these women have in common?

Answer: They all turned to doctors to help them die...

But why are there so many women on the list of patients who made medical history with their dying? Where are the examples of Tom, Dick, and Harry in the debate on assisted suicide?

The numbers are still too small to be statistically valid, but as JAMA editor George D. Lundberg points out: "There is a pattern that's beginning to emerge."...

The apparent gender gap in physician-assisted suicides can also be explained by the differences between men and women in the methods they choose to kill themselves. "Men's methods are active and physical," says JAMA editor Lundberg, a forensic pathologist. They commit suicide by gunshot, hanging or jumping off a bridge. They also kill themselves four times more frequently than women. "Women's methods are more passive," he says. They use drugs, which usually require a doctor's prescription.

But there could be other factors at work. The shortage of men on the list may reflect a more subtle and inherent form of sexism in medicine. Lundberg suggests that male patients may also ask physicians to help them die, but doctors are more comfortable writing about women who seek help because it fits the profession's stereotype of the weak, needy patient-female. Given the paternalism of the medical establishment, "men would be more likely to describe a woman requesting assistance than other men," says Lundberg.

Undoubtedly there have been Daves, Dicks and Johns, but it fits cultural stereotyping to publicize Debbie, Diane and Janet.

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