A police officer witnesses a man trapped under a burning truck. Desperate and in pain, the man asks the policeman to shoot him and spare him the pain of dying a slow, unbearable death. As a result, he shoots. The police officer's dilemma is commonly cited in favor of physician-assisted suicide, or PAS. Euthanasia and assisted suicide are interchangeable terms that both result in the death of a person. The voluntary PAS is a healthcare professional, usually a physician, who provides medications or other procedures with the goal of ending the patient's life. Voluntary PAS is the administration of a medication with the explicit consent of the patient. For the purposes of this article, we focus on physician-assisted voluntary suicide among individuals aged 65 and older. Assisted suicide raises complex moral, religious, cultural and legal issues. Laws against assisted suicide are present in 37 states, with the majority clearly defining that assisting in suicide is a crime. The law is ambiguous in nine states, and in two states there are civil penalties for assisted suicide (Rubin). The only two states that have legalized SAP are Oregon and Washington. A recurring theme in the debates is that legalizing physician-assisted suicide would lead to a slippery slope, leading to inevitable pressure and abuse against “vulnerable groups”. Vulnerable groups are those who are vulnerable to prejudice (i.e., women, immigrants, minorities, the terminally ill, and the elderly) or those who view themselves as unworthy of care (Battin 2007) . To assess the increased risk of PAS in vulnerable groups, particularly old data from Oregon and the Netherlands, the only two places in which euthanasia and PAS are legal, were analyzed. There...... middle of paper ...... impact on patients in "vulnerable" groups. Journal of Medical Ethics, 33(10), 591-597.Boer, TA (2007). Recurring themes in the debate on euthanasia and assisted suicide. Journal of Religious Ethics, 35(3), 529-555. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9795.2007.00318.xCampbell, CS & COX, JC (2010). HOSPICE AND PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED DEATH. Hastings Center Report, 40(5), 26-35. Golden, M. and Zoanni, T. (2010). Killing us gently: the dangers of legalizing assisted suicide. Journal of Disability and Health, 3(1), 16-30. doi:10.1016/j.dhjo.2009.08.006Rubin, E. (2010). Assisted suicide, morality and the law: why the ban on assisted suicide violates the establishment clause. Vanderbilt Law Review, 63(3), 761-811. Quill, T.E. (2012). Physicians should “assisted suicide” when appropriate. Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics, 40(1), 57-65. doi:10.1111/j.1748-720X.2012.00646.x