Oregon marked a somber anniversary last month when officials released the fifth annual report on physician-assisted suicide under the state's Death with Dignity Act.
For those who believe, as the AMA does, that physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally inconsistent with a physician's professional role, the report is troubling.
While the number of actual suicides under the law remains relatively small — 38 in 2002 — that number is more than double the 16 suicides that occurred in 1998, the first year the law was in place.
Also troubling, as it has been in the past, is the report's findings on the reasons people contemplate physician-assisted suicide.
It would be easy — and, many would say, understandable — if intractable pain, a traditional rallying cry for assisted suicide, was at the forefront. Not so. It came in, as it typically does, very near the bottom of the list. Instead, the main reason has remained constant: loss of autonomy.
Joining it at the top of the list are concerns over decreasing ability to participate in the activities that make life enjoyable, losing control of bodily functions and becoming a burden on family, friends or caregivers.
This represents both a tragedy and a challenge for the medical profession and for society. A dignified and pain-free end of life — without perverting medicine's mission — is achievable. The medical profession needs to do its share, both clinically and in terms of advocacy, to ensure that dying patients are provided optimal treatment for these discomforts, physical or emotional.
With at least two more states contemplating legalization of assisted suicide, it is important that the future debate not surrender to the failure represented by each deadly prescription.
(This op-ed was writen on behalf of the American Medical Association and appears in the April 21st edition of the AMA News, the group's publication. This article courtesy of Steven Ertelt and the Pro-Life Infonet email newsletter. For more information or to subscribe go to www.prolifeinfo.org or email infonet@prolifeinfo.org.)
See also:
Why New Restrictions on Abortion? LDI Says States Should Enforce Laws Already on the Books
CWA Congratulates CDC for New Lifesaving Plan for AIDS Prevention
