Category: Ethics

American Medical Association: Call It ‘Physician-Assisted Suicide,’ Not ‘Aid-in-Dying’

CNS News

Patrick  Goodenough

CNSNews.com) – Advocates of assisted suicide are dismayed that the largest association of physicians in the U.S. has decided to continue using the term “physician-assisted suicide” rather than euphemisms such as “medical aid-in-dying.”

Meeting in Chicago on Monday, the American Medical Association, by a vote of 360-190, adopted a report by its Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs (CEJA) recommending that the term “physician-assisted suicide” continue to be used.

Significantly, the AMA also voted to reaffirm its Code of Medical Ethics’ current policy on assisted suicide – the view that allowing doctors to help patients to die “is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer.” That vote was 392-162. . . [Full text]

AMA Reaffirms Stance Against Physician-Aided Death

Medscape

Marcia Frellick

CHICAGO — Delegates voted overwhelmingly to affirm the current policy opposing physician-assisted dying here at the American Medical Association (AMA) 2019 Annual Meeting.

After impassioned testimony from both sides at last year’s meeting, the Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs was asked to further examine the issue.

“The AMA House of Delegates concluded that established guidance in the Code of Medical Ethics supports shared decisions that respect the deeply held beliefs of physicians and their patients with respect to assisted suicide,” said AMA President Barbara McAneny, MD. . . [Full text]

American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, American Academy of Neurology

Canadian Blood Services releases first set of national guidelines for organ donation after medical assistance in dying

The Globe and Mail

Kelly Grant

In the last moments before Bob Blackwood died, the doctor paused and, in front of a hushed crowd of operating-room staff, thanked Mr. Blackwood for the gift he was about to give.

It was the summer of 2017 and Mr. Blackwood, a 63-year-old former lawyer with a rare and excruciating neurological disorder, was about to become the first patient in Quebec’s eastern townships to donate his organs after receiving a medically assisted death.

“[The doctor] said he hoped that this was something they’ll be able to do more in the future to help save lives,” said Heather Ross, Mr. Blackwood’s widow. “It was just lovely how he put it.” . . . [Full text]

Physician, heal thyself: the potential crisis of conscience in Canadian medicine

What if your faith in doctors having conscience was shaken?

The Globe and Mail
Reproduced with permission

Gabrielle Horne*

Physician, heal thyself: the potential crisis of conscience in Canadian medicine“I’m really sorry,” I said, picking the magnifying glass off the floor and checking it wasn’t cracked. “I think it’s okay.”

It was my third day on the witness stand, testifying against doctors from the hospital where I still worked. I couldn’t read the tiny numbers on the document disclosing how much my colleagues were paid, and the hospital lawyer had offered it to me, to end the theatre.

“He’s just softening you up before cross-examination,” my lawyer had said with a wry smile, standing at the podium.

Afterward, I wondered why I’d apologized, in a full courtroom, to this man who had taken a wrecking ball to my life over the previous 10 years. Then it occurred to me: to apologize is a sign of a conscience.

Doctors are expected to have one. Their job is to heal the sick and save lives, and that role evokes an image and expectation of beneficence – doing only good. Doctors invest in that image when they espouse a code of conduct descended from the Hippocratic oath: “I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment, but never with a view to injury and wrongdoing.” Patients also invest in that image and expectation. When illness strikes, they must often put their lives, their confidence and their most vulnerable selves in the hands of doctors they barely know. The expectation of conscience is at the core of the medical pact.

But what if your faith in doctors having conscience was shaken? [Full text]

Photo by Matthew Henry from Burst

Conscientious objection must be respectful, pope tells health care workers

Crux

Junno Arocho Esteves

ROME – When doctors, nurses and health care workers conscientiously object to a procedure to protect the life and dignity of their patients, they must do so respectfully, Pope Francis said.

Without respect, conscientious objection can be “a reason for contempt or pride” that would impede dialogue “with those who hold different positions” and mask the true reason of that objection, which is to the seek the patient’s well-being, the pope told a group of Catholic health care workers May 17 at the Vatican. . . [Full text]