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In recent years, legislatures and courts, religious leaders and scientists, citizens and patient advocates have all weighed in on end-of-life issues ranging from whether the terminally ill should have the right to take their own lives to how much treatment and sustenance those in the last stages of life should receive.

About the organization: Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. We conduct public opinion polling, demographic research, content analysis and other data-driven social science research.

Keywords: End-of-life debate, Physician-assisted suicide, Euthanasia, Right to die, Terminally ill patients, Life-sustaining treatment, Public opinion on death and dying, Religious views on euthanasia, Legal cases in end-of-life decisions, Terri Schiavo case, Karen Ann Quinlan case, Health care and mortality, Right to refuse treatment, Medical ethics and death, U.S. legal precedents on euthanasia