Another Major Medical Voice Against Physician-Assisted Suicide

By Dave Andrusko

The American Medical Association has been joined by the nation's second-largest medical organization in formally opposing physician-assisted suicide.

The 115,000-member-strong American College of Physicians-American Society of Internal Medicine (ACP-ASIM) declared its opposition in a position paper that appeared in the August 7 edition of the prestigious Annals of Internal Medicine.

The ACP-ASIM acknowledged that there were physicians "with thoughtful arguments" who support legalization. "However, they do not outweigh the other vital interests at stake, nor do they warrant the risks associated with the legalization of physician- assisted suicide," the paper states.

Legalization "would undermine the patient-physician relationship and the trust necessary to sustain it; alter the medical profession's role in society; and endanger the value our society places on life, especially the lives of disabled, incompetent, and vulnerable individuals," write Dr. Daniel Sulmasy of the American College of Physicians, and Lois Snyder, J.D. "We must solve the problems of inadequate care at the end of life, not avoid them through practices such as assisted suicide."

Looking at the broader context, they argue that a broad right to physician-assisted suicide "could undermine efforts to marshal the needed resources, and the will, to ensure humane and dignified care for all persons facing terminal illness or severe disability."

Far better to improve and increase care for pain and suffering, treat depression more aggressively, and increase access to hospice care in order to help terminally ill patients die more comfortably, the position paper says.

Writing for the Ethics and Human Rights Committee, Sulmasy and Snyder candidly conclude, "To the extent that this is a dilemma partly due to the failings of medicine to adequately provide good care and comfort at the end of life, medicine can and should do better."

Tracking arguments that have regularly appeared in places such as National Right to Life News, the authors explain that depression is the common denominator among most people who seek " assistance" and that the expression of a desire to die among terminally ill patients ebbs and flows significantly over time.