Profession
Bill to ban assisted suicide on hold
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Oct. 9, 2006
Sen. Ron Wyden (D, Ore.) last month placed a hold on a bill that would bar physicians from prescribing federally controlled substances for the purpose of helping terminally ill patients commit suicide. The hold means that the Assisted Suicide Prevention Act, proposed by Sen. Sam Brownback (R, Kan.) in August, needs 60 senators' approval to proceed.
"The government ought not attempt to override or preempt the individual and the family values, religious beliefs and wishes," Wyden said.
Brownback's bill came in response to a January Supreme Court ruling that U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft exceeded his authority when he issued a 2001 directive stating that physician-assisted suicide was not a "legitimate medical purpose" for which doctors could prescribe federally controlled drugs.
"When the law permits killing as a medical 'treatment,' society's moral guidelines are blurred," Brownback said when introducing the bill. The AMA, whose policy says physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the doctor's role as healer, has not taken a position on the Brownback bill.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2006/10/09/prbf1009.htm.
