AMA Rejects Recommendation to Reaffirm Opposition to Medical Aid in Dying
The American Medical Association (AMA) House of Delegates
today voted 53 to 47 percent to reject a report by its Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA)
that recommended the AMA maintain its Code of Medical Ethics’ opposition to
medical aid in dying. Instead, the House of Delegates referred the report back
to CEJA for further work.
The
AMA Code of Medical Ethics Opinion 5.7 adopted 25 years ago in 1993 before
medical aid in dying was authorized anywhere in the United States says:
“...permitting physicians to engage in assisted suicide would ultimately cause
more harm than good. Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible
with the physician’s role as healer...”
In
contrast, the CEJA report implicitly acknowledges that medical
aid-in-laws improve end-of-life care, by spurring conversations between
physicians and terminally ill patients about all end-of-life care options, such
as hospice and palliative care:
“Patient
requests for [medical aid in dying] invite physicians to have the kind of
difficult conversations that are too often avoided. They open opportunities to
explore the patient’s goals and concerns, to learn what about the situation the
individual finds intolerable and to respond creatively to the patient’s
needs...” said the report. “Medicine as a profession must ensure that
physicians are skillful in engaging in these difficult conversations and
knowledgeable about the options availabl...
Source: blog.bioethics.net - Category: Medical Ethics Authors: Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD Tags: Health Care syndicated Source Type: blogs
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