So far, the polls which were conducted in the United States concerning assisted suicide showed that Americans are generally supportive of the practice. For instance, a survey which was done in 1993 showed that 58% were in favor of assisted suicide while only 36% said no to the practice. By 1998, 52% of Americans polled were still in favor while 37% were against it.
Meanwhile, a survey which was jointly conducted by CBS and the New York Times in November 2004 found that a lower percentage of Americans (46%) supported assisted suicide while the number of Americans who voted against it increased to 45%. The following year, however, two surveys which were conducted by separate organizations produced contrasting results. The CBS News conducted another survey in July 2005. Its findings showed that 54% of Americans favored assisted suicide (higher than the 46% recorded the previous year) while 39% rejected it.
On the other hand, the Pew Research Center survey which was conducted a month later (August) found that only 44% were in favor of the practice while a higher 48% voted against it. Relative to the Pew Research Center survey, Americans appeared to have changed their minds once more in 2006. The result of the Angus Reid survey which was conducted in January 2006, however, showed that 56% favored assisted suicide while only 37% opposed it. The survey, in effect, confirmed the CBS survey of the previous year.
The ballots, however, were telling a different story. When the issue was placed in the ballot in the state of California in 1992, the voters in that state voted against assisted suicide by a 54% to 46% majority vote. The same thing happened in the balloting which was conducted in the state of Michigan in 1998. The measure was defeated overwhelmingly by a vote of 71% against and 29% in favor. The year 2000 saw another reversal for assisted suicide when 51% of the voters in Maine declared that they were not in favor of legalizing assisted suicide (Ertelt).