This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Is polling a reliable measure of public opinion? Consider two polls conducted by Dan Jones in relation to the End of Life Options Act bill now in the Legislature:

Poll No. 1, conducted Nov. 5-14, 2015, and published in Utah Policy Daily Dec. 10, 2015:

"Do you favor or oppose some kind of 'right to die; law, where licensed medical personnel could help a terminally-ill, mentally-competent person die with allowed drugs if that person chooses?"

Definitely favor: 35 percent

Somewhat favor: 23 percent

Somewhat oppose: 10 percent

Definitely oppose: 25 percent

Don't know: 6 percent

Fifteen months later, Dan Jones conducted another.

Poll No. 2, conducted Jan. 9-15, 2017, published in Salt Lake Tribune Feb. 9, 2017:

"Do you approve or disapprove of the legislation of physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients?"

Definitely favor: 20 percent

Somewhat favor: 17 percent

Somewhat oppose: 16 percent

Definitely oppose: 43 percent

Don't know: 4 percent

Does this show that public opinion has flipped, from 58 percent in favor to 59 percent opposed? But look at the differences in what these poll questions ask:

Poll No. 1 asks about the patient's voluntary choice.

Poll No. 2 does not.

Poll No. 1 asks about mentally competent individuals.

Poll No. 2 does not.

Poll No. 1 asks about "helping" a patient.

Poll No. 2 hints that suicide would be imposed on patients.

These are not two polls about the same issue. Poll No. 1, sponsored by the Utah Policy Daily, is actually about the bill that has been run by Rep. Rebecca Chavez-Houck for three years in a row. This bill (now numbered House Bill 76) would permit a competent, terminally ill patient who is a resident of the state of Utah to make two oral requests at least 15 days apart, plus a written request, for aid-in-dying from a physician in the form of a lethal prescription which the patient must self-administer. It would be subject to referral for a psychological or psychiatric evaluation if either of two independent physicians believes that depression or mental illness is affecting the patient's choice. If there is pressure from a physician, a family member, an insurance company or any other party, that's a first-degree felony.

Poll No. 2, sponsored by the Salt Lake Tribune and the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah, is about some perverse, doomsday fantasy that ignores or distorts virtually every feature of the bill.

Dan Jones, the Tribune and the Hinckley Institute, it's time for a more realistic, more honest, more professional poll that would let us know what Utahns really think and what options Utahns want for the ways in which every single Utahn will eventually die.

The authors are Margaret P. Battin, Lisa Browdy, Walt Medlin, M.D., Liana Teteberg, Michelle Rasich, Cara Drury, Jill Lesh, Vickie Samuelson, Don Schoenbeck, Elizabeth R. Pollak, M.D.,LeGrand Belnap, M.D., Arlene Penttila, Norma Tharp and Louis Borgenicht, M.D.