ASSISTED SUICIDE: ADMINISTRATION TO SEEK BAN ON PRACTICE
"Fulfilling a promise made by President Clinton," the U.S.This is part of the California Healthline Daily Edition, a summary of health policy coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.
Justice Department is expected to ask the Supreme Court today "to
deny constitutional protection to assisted suicide." In a legal
brief, the Justice Department will state its opposition to "any
right of terminally ill people to obtain lethal drugs," according
to attorneys advising the administration. Baltimore SUN reports
that the Supreme Court will hear cases early next year filed by
Washington and New York "seeking to overturn lower-court rulings
in favor of assisted suicide as a constitutional right." SUN
notes that the filing with the Supreme Court "will mark the first
time that the administration has publicly added its weight to the
opposition to constitutional safeguards for assisted suicide."
DOMINO EFFECT?: A key issue the department "has tried to
resolve in discussions was how to oppose assisted suicide without
making such a sweeping constitutional argument as to lead the
Supreme Court to undermine other claims of privacy rights --
especially the right to abortion." Baltimore SUN reports that
the department has privately been warned "by women's rights
groups that abortion rights might be endangered by what the
administration urged the court to rule on assisted suicide."
Lawyers involved in the case predict that it "is likely to draw
more pro- and anti-filings than perhaps any case in court
history."
JOINING FORCES: According to the SUN, the department's
actions will put the administration in line with the American
Medical Association and Washington and New York states in
supporting a ban on physician-assisted suicide (Denniston,
11/12). Twenty states filed two friend-of-the-court briefs with
the high court Friday in support of the denial of constitutional
protection for assisted suicide. The briefs were filed on behalf
of Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois,
Iowa, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Montana,
Nebraska, New Hampshire, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee
and Virginia (AHL sources, 11/12).
AMA ACTION: The American Medical Association (AMA) filed a
friend-of-the-court brief today in the Supreme Court opposing
physician-assisted suicide on behalf of its members, the American
Nurses Association and more than 30 medical societies. AMA Chair
Dr. Nancy Dickey said, "This amicus brief represents a united
front of the health care professionals primarily involved with
patients facing death -- physicians and nurses." The AMA brief
contends that a constitutional right to physician-assisted
suicide "will create profound danger for many ill persons with
undiagnosed depression and inadequately treated pain, for whom
assisted suicide rather than good palliative care could become
the norm. At greatest risk would be those with the least access
to palliative care -- the poor, the elderly and members of
minority groups." The brief concludes, "The sentiment for
physician-assisted suicide is not the right answer to the problem
of inadequate care. Although for some patients it might appear
compassionate to hasten death, institutionalizing physician-
assisted suicide as a medical treatment would put many more
patients at serious risk for unwanted and unnecessary death."
Rather than recognize the right of physician-assisted suicide,
the AMA contends that "we should recognize instead the urgent
necessity of extending to all patients the palliative care they
need and redouble our efforts to provide such care to all" (AMA
release, 11/12).
TO THE CONTRARY: Noting that Dr. Marcia Angell, executive
editor of the NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE, came out last week
in favor of physician-assisted suicide, a BOSTON HERALD editorial
said "she displays a cavalier attitude toward potential abuses."
According to the editorial, the cost of assisted suicide is borne
by "individuals who are lonely, depressed and in pain. Most of
them have no idea of the options available to them for pain
management." The editorial concludes that "[t]here is no form of
assisted suicide that offers adequate safeguards against
misdiagnosis and coercion. Angell's prescription is bad
medicine, bad law and bad ethics" (11/9).