Last week’s issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has it’s theme as death, dying and the end of life. Of the eight Viewpoint articles in this issue, one contribution comes from Duke GIM, Dr. Farr Curlin, along with Y Tony Yang, ScD, LLM, MPH, at George Mason University. Their commentary expresses the position that physicians should oppose assisted suicide.
Yang and Curlin argue that patients already have the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment. They review the obligations of physicians to relieve suffering, they address issues of patient trust, of terminology used with this subject, and issues of caring for the patient.
Many patients loath the prospect of abject debility. The physician’s role is to maintain solidarity with those whose health is diminished, not to imply that debility renders a patient’s life not worth living.
Yang and Curlin in "Why Physicians Should Oppose Assisted Suicide"
JAMA includes a contrasting Viewpoint by Quill et al titled “Responding to Patients Requesting Physician-Assisted Death: Physician Involvement at the Very End of Life,” as well as publishing an editorial by Atul Gwande. a well known surgeon and writer, recognized most recently for his book, Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End.
Full citation:
Yang Y, Curlin FA. Why Physicians Should Oppose Assisted Suicide. JAMA.2016;315(3):247-248. doi:10.1001/jama.2015.16194. PMID 26784763 [Link]
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