Philip Nitschke is the author of "The Peaceful Pill Handbook." In 1996, he became the first doctor to administer a legal, lethal, voluntary injection to four terminally ill patients under Australia’s Rights of the Terminally Ill Act.

In 1996, the Northern Territory of Australia one of the most secular places in one of the world's most secular countries -- became the first place in the world to legalize voluntary euthanasia. In 2002, when the Netherlands legalized voluntary euthanasia, more than 40 percent of the Dutch denied any religious allegiance and only half claimed to be Christians. Oregon, the first U.S. state to allow assisted suicide, claimed that its lack of status as a "church state" meant that it had a unique moral flexibility.

As long as God plays an important role in the lives of Americans, these laws will be controversial in the U.S.

Now more than a decade later, Australia has over-rode its north’s truancy, Oregon's enlightenment has spread ever so slightly to next door Washington, and three other states -- Massachusetts, New York and Pennsylvania -- have laws pending. Meanwhile, the Dutch have progressed the debate almost beyond recognition, suggesting end of life choices should not be the domain simply of the terminally ill.

As long as religion plays an important role in the lives of Americans, assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia will be controversial in the United States. If the right to die is to become an elective option in the U.S. in the same way chemotherapy or radiation are for those with cancer, the starting point must be a reclaiming of control over one’s body from God.