AMA reaffirms opposition to physician-assisted suicide

This didn’t get much attention last month, but the Christian Medical & Dental Associations is praising the new ethical guidelines of the American Medical Association.

The guidelines state:

Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks. Instead of engaging in assisted suicide, physicians must aggressively respond to the needs of patients at the end of life.

Read it all.

The Christian Medical and Dental Associations notes:

Christian Medical & Dental Associations CEO David Stevens, MD, MA (ethics) commends their decision, “I am pleased that the AMA has reaffirmed their strong opposition to physician assisted suicide and euthanasia. They continue to state, that ‘PAS is fundamentally inconsistent with the physician’s professional role” and that “Requests to physicians for PAS should signal the M.D. that the patient’s needs are unmet and further help is needed.’” CMDA member Dr. Tom Eppes, a Virginia delegate to the convention and Chair of the Integrated Physician Practice Section of the AMA who was in attendance at the Code of Ethics Decision Reference Committee and speaking for himself says, “You are violating the AMA Code of Ethics when you are in the business of prescribing a deadly drug to your patients. Physicians are healers, not killers. “At the same time the AMA reaffirmed their decision to oppose physician assisted suicide and euthanasia, a committee agreed to set up a panel that will investigate what is  happening throughout the U.S. in regards to end of life care, get input from the AMA members and report back. I expect a small but extremely vocal group of physicians will to try to convince delegates to approve a neutral stance on legalizing PAS. Wherever a state medical organization has done that, legalization has soon followed.“