When a good friend of Dr. Larry Moher asked him to help end his life, Moher thought for a long time about what he should do.

His friend was suffering from a terminal illness and wanted Moher to write prescriptions for drugs.

The UA professor in clinical family and community medicine used his medical training to help him as he finally decided to write the prescriptions for his friend.

Even though his friend did not use the drugs, Moher said it was a difficult decision for him to make and he would not do it for everyone.

"People have a right to kill themselves, but they don't need me to do it," he said.

Recently, Arizona's Senate Health Committee voted down legislation that would have allowed physicians to prescribe lethal doses of medicine to terminally ill patients at the patients' request.

John Racy, professor of psychiatry and director of psychiatric education at the University of Arizona's College of Medicine, said physicians probably influenced the rejection of this legislation.

"Physicians tend to be leery of euthanasia," he said.

Legislation is needed on euthanasia to balance out the power of patients and physicians, he said.

"Everybody has to consider both quality of life issues and personal issues," he said. He covers euthanasia in his medical ethics classes for first- and second-year medical students, Racy said.

Many of the students seem to be okay with the idea that everybody has a time to die and that they might be asked to help someone die, he said.

Steve Galper, second-year medical student, said he feels if a patient is competent they should be able to make their own decisions about their care.

"I'm ready to see a law passed to allow doctor-assisted suicides," he said.

Physicians often prescribe medication and let the patients decide what to do with it, Racy said.

"Suicide is a human right," he said.

Most patients don't want prescription drugs to kill themselves with but instead to ease their pain, Galper said.

"I don't think a lot of people are afraid of dying, I think they are afraid of pain and not being able to stop it," he said.

James Wurzel, second-year medical student, said the decision to allow a person to end his or her life through the help of a doctor should be left up to a committee of physicians, clergy and family members to decide.

Medical students usually haven't dealt with people dying and the opinions formed are based on their upbringing and theoretical thought, Moher said.

"Arizona law is against euthanasia and I would obey the law," said Andy Nguyen, second-year medical student.

Most of the general population surveys show that people are in favor of physician-assisted suicide, Moher said.

"For patients there is a big fear that they have no control over the end of their lives," he said.

Patients can write living wills which enable patients to decide the type of care they want to receive, Moher and Racy said.

"A person can state that they don't want extra measures taken to prolong his life," Racy said.

Euthanasia is a controversial issue, but Racy said he feels it only affects a minority of patients.

"The majority of people die without raising the question of euthanasia," he said.