{"id":137458,"date":"2023-11-17T00:00:20","date_gmt":"2023-11-17T05:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=137458"},"modified":"2023-11-17T00:07:31","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T05:07:31","slug":"american-medical-association-stays-opposed-to-assisted-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/american-medical-association-stays-opposed-to-assisted-suicide\/","title":{"rendered":"American Medical Association stays opposed to assisted suicide"},"content":{"rendered":"

Resolutions called for the AMA to support or stay neutral<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Efforts to change the American Medical Association\u2019s opposition to assisted suicide failed this week, as two resolutions were voted down by the House of Delegates.<\/p>\n

One resolution<\/a> proposed changing current AMA policy to delete the statement that \u201cPhysicians must not perform euthanasia or participate in assisted suicide.\u201d The resolution also proposed changing the term \u201cphysician-assisted suicide\u201d to \u201cmedical aid-in-dying.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another resolution proposed<\/a> the House of Delegates \u201cadopt a neutral stance on medical aid in dying and respect the autonomy and right of self-determination of patients and physicians in this matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

A media statement provided to\u00a0The College Fix<\/em> confirmed the resolutions were rejected. The deliberations “reflected an array of deeply held perspectives on physician-assisted suicide,” according to the statement on behalf of AMA President Jesse Ehrenfield.<\/p>\n

As a result, “the established guidance in the Code of Medical Ethics<\/i> regarding the topic will remain unchanged.”<\/p>\n

Research will continue into this issue, according to the AMA.<\/p>\n

Several medical ethicists told The Fix<\/em> prior to the vote why the AMA should not endorse assisted suicide.<\/p>\n

Wesley Smith, a fellow with the Discovery Institute, said \u201clegalizing assisted suicide gives the state\u2019s imprimatur on some suicides and thereby distinguishes between suicidal people the state considers worth saving via suicide prevention, and those whose lives are so unworthy of being lived that their deaths should be facilitated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBy definition, that destroys universal human equality and constitutes abandonment of despairing people who might change their minds if given proper support,\u201d he wrote in an email to The Fix<\/em>. \u201cIt constitutes abandonment, pretending to be compassionate. (Compassion\u2019s root meaning is to \u2018suffer with.\u2019 Assisted suicide discards).\u201d<\/p>\n

He has written<\/a> several books about bioethics, assisted suicide, and euthanasia and is regular commentator on the subjects.<\/p>\n

He said \u201cmedical aid in dying\u201d is just a \u201ceuphemism\u201d to \u201cmask the brutality of the act.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAssisted suicide, in contrast, is both accurate and descriptive. Assisted means having aid in taking an action,\u201d Smith wrote. \u201cSuicide is to take one\u2019s own life. Assisted suicide does both.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMoreover, suicide describes WHAT is done, not WHY,\u201d he said. \u201cIf a movement feels the need to hide behind opaque verbiage, there is something wrong with the values of that movement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Medical ethicist says assisted suicide is part of ‘throwaway culture’<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

A professor of medical humanities at Creighton University\u2019s medical school provided similar criticism.<\/p>\n

Professor Charles Camosy said via email on Nov. 10 that \u201cin some ways, the fact that the AMA has been trying this long and not changed the good language they’ve had until this point reveals a stubbornness of their will not to sell out to a morally incoherent definition of medicine.\u201d<\/p>\n

He has written several books about bioethics and human dignity and is also a moral theologian.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf healers can be killers, then the very idea that medicine is \u2018about something\u2019 at all becomes ridiculous,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cCatholic understandings of medicine will not change, at least if they are to remain Catholic,\u201d the social commentator and theologian wrote. \u201cOur Lord, the Great Physician, calls us to healing, suffering with, nonviolence, and lifting up the value of others\u2013even and perhaps especially when they cannot see their own value.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Camosy told The Fix<\/em> \u201cthe legalization of physician\u2013assisted killing is bad for so many reasons, but it is bad in particular because it goes against our very good cultural impulse to stop people with suicidal ideation and save them from an objectively bad impulse to kill themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPope Francis emphasizes how throwaway culture uses language that makes vulnerable people easier to discard, and this is a classic example,\u201d Professor Camosy told The Fix<\/em>.<\/p>\n

State support for assisted suicide is a problem in other countries too, Camosy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis March, Canada will apparently offer so-called \u2018medical aid in dying\u2019 to people who are explicitly not dying but only disabled,\u201d he said. The new policy draws \u201capt comparisons to the medical practices under Nazi Germany with regard to those the powerful in the culture have deemed not worthy of life.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe \u2018right\u2019 to die almost always becomes the duty to die, especially if one is vulnerable and perceived as being a burden on others, and language like \u2018medical aid in dying\u2019 hides these and other pernicious facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE:<\/strong> Med school director says ‘quality’ of students will worsen due to abortion ban<\/a><\/p>\n

IMAGE: Kraken Images\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

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