Subject: American College of Physicians Joins AMA in Opposing Assisted Suicide
Source: Associated Press, Reuters; August 6, 2001

American College of Physicians Joins AMA in Opposing Assisted Suicide

Philadelphia, PA -- The American College of Physicians, the nation's
second-largest medical organization behind the American Medical
Association, has joined the AMA in officially opposing assisted suicide. A
paper published Tuesday in the Annals of Internal Medicine says the
90,000-member American College of Physicians believes doctors should
always look for ways to improve care for the dying.

``We must solve the problems of inadequate care at the end of life, not
avoid them through practices such as assisted suicide,'' said Dr. Daniel
Sulmasy of the American College of Physicians, an author of the paper.

Providing more and better care for pain and suffering, treating depression
more aggressively and increasing access to hospice care are essential to
help terminally ill patients die more comfortably, the paper said.

Assisted suicide would damage the patient-physician relationship,
jeopardize the medical profession's role of healing, and lessen the value
placed on life, according to the paper.

The paper emphasized the group's strong support for a patient's right to
refuse or halt treatment.

Besides the AMA, the paper also puts the American College of Physicians in
consensus with the American Nurses Association, The American Geriatrics
Society and a host of other medical and religious groups. The AMA
expressed its opposition to assisted suicide in 1993.

One needs only to ``take a look at Dr. (Jack) Kevorkian's victims'' to see
that assistant suicide should not be an option, said Dr. Richard Corlin,
AMA president.

``You see not just people in the last stages of a terminal illness; you
see people who are suffering from chronic depression, people with
arthritis, multiple sclerosis,'' he said. ``They're in pain (but) would
clearly benefit from the better use of pain medications, the better use of
psychological support and the involvement of family in their care.''

A spokeswoman for a pro-assisted suicide lobbying group said most people
support assisted suicide but many are afraid to say so publicly.

``It's likely that as baby boomers get closer to the end of their lives -
and watch as their parents are being kept alive by machines and suffering
unbearable pain or indignity - they will seek a more positive outcome for
the end of their own lives,'' said Jane Ruvelson of the Death with Dignity
National Center.

Assisted suicide is outlawed in all U.S. states except Oregon, where the
practice is allowed under a law that took effect in 1997, the same year
the U.S. Supreme Court ruled there was no constitutional right to assisted
suicide.

Studies suggest 11 percent of terminally ill patients seriously
contemplate suicide and that about half of U.S. doctors who receive
suicide requests have helped someone die.