The Commons Backbench Business Committee has decided that the House of Commons in the United Kingdom will debate the assisted suicide guidelines published by the Director of Public Prosecutions in 2010. The guidelines had the effect of leaving the regulation of assisted suicide in the hands of police and Crown Counsel, though the practice remained a criminal offence. Conservative MP Richard Ottawa will ask the Commons to approve or reject the guidelines, and there is a chance that the debate could lead to legalization of the procedure in those cases excluded from prosecution by the guidelines. [BBC]
Warning that protection of conscience laws may enable euthanasia
Burke J. Balch, J.D., director of National Right to Life Committee’s Robert Powell Center for Medical Ethics in the USA, has warned that protection of conscience laws like the Illinois Health Care Right of Conscience Act and Mississippi’s Health Care Rights of Conscience Act are dangerous because they may permit health care workers to commit euthanasia by withdrawing or refusing to provide medical treatment for reasons of conscience. [NRTL News]
Mixed message from US government for victims of unethical medical research
From 1946 to 1948, American and Guatemalan physicians infected prostitutes and prisoners with syphilis without their knowledge or consent in order to test penicillin. The research was discovered by a Wellesley College professor in 2009, and lawyers for the victims filed a class-action lawsuit against the United States. The Obama administration claims that the US is immune from such lawsuits, but has announced that it will spend $1 million to review new rules to protect medical research volunteers, $775,000 to fight sexually transmitted diseases in Guatemala, and will develop a system to compensate anyone harmed in medical research. Lawyers for the Guatemalan victims say that the promised action is inconsistent with the claim of immunity. [Washington Post]
British member of European Parliament favours assisted suicide
Member of the European Parliament Roger Helmer has written in favour of assisted suicide on grounds beyond those recommended by a recent report by a private commission, advocating the availability of the procedure for those not terminally ill. He explicitly argues that the cost of supporting people with advanced dementia is one reason to accept the practice. [TFA]
American College of Physicians acknowledges freedom of conscience
The American College of Physicians has acknowledged that physicians who object to “abortion, sterilization, contraception or other reproductive services . . . is not obligated to recommend, perform or prescribe them.” The statement is in the most recent edition of the College’s Ethics Manual. However, an objecting physician is obliged to advise a patient of “care options and alternatives, so that the patient’s rights are not constrained.” Only if the physician is unwilling to provide this information is a transfer of care required. [Secondhand Smoke]