GESTIÓN EN SALUD PÚBLICA: BioEdge: AMA’s stand on assisted suicide weakens after annual meeting

domingo, 17 de junio de 2018

BioEdge: AMA’s stand on assisted suicide weakens after annual meeting

BioEdge: AMA’s stand on assisted suicide weakens after annual meeting

Bioedge

AMA’s stand on assisted suicide weakens after annual meeting

by Michael Cook | 16 Jun 2018 |

The American Medical Association’s official position on assisted suicide is to oppose it as “fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer.” Its Council on Ethical and Juridical Affairs recently recommended that this be maintained.

However, delegates at the AMA’s annual meeting in Chicago this week voted by a margin of 56% to 44% to continue studying the issue.

So the AMA’s official position remains unchanged for the moment, but a change is in the air. Supporters of assisted suicide will probably push for a stance of neutrality.

“The (ethics panel’s) work and resulting report have added clarity to the issue and emphasized that physicians from all perspectives share a common commitment to the core values of care, compassion, respect, and dignity for their patients,” former AMA President Dr. Andrew Gurman said in a statement.

“Many of the AMA’s constituent societies favor neutrality in order to respect and protect doctors and patients whether they decide to participate in this medical practice or not,” commented Dr David Grube, who wrote 30 prescriptions for medical aid in dying in Oregon between 1998 and 2012 and currently is the national medical director for Compassion & Choices, the leading right-to-die lobby group in the US. “I’m heartened that the AMA House of Delegates is open to continuing to study and learn about this issue when there is no clear consensus among AMA members.”

But the executive director of the Patients’ Rights Action Fund wasn’t impressed. “(It’s) a lost opportunity and a failure to stand against a policy that has grave consequences for everyone, but especially persons living with illness, disabilities, or socioeconomic disadvantage. Assisted suicide is not medical care,” Matt Vallière told the Washington Post.

Sunday, June 17, 2018

The Economist recently highlighted growing concern about “the surveillance state”. It argued that “the digital world, like the real one, [should have] places where law-abiding people can enjoy privacy. Citizens of liberal democracies do not expect to be frisked without good cause, or have their homes searched without a warrant.”

And it concluded, “Police rightly watch citizens to keep them safe. Citizens must watch the police to remain free.”

This is useful advice for anyone sending DNA to a genealogy website. Our lead story below is an example of how police vigilance, open source data, and personal privacy become scrambled. Earlier this year California police used the DNA of a vicious serial killer who had been off the radar for more than 30 years and identified him through a popular website.

I can imagine that some users must have been outraged. This could happen to me: what gives police the right to trawl through my relatives? Perhaps we should follow the advice of The Economist and require warrants for searching family trees on the internet.

On another note, you probably know that we're coming to the end of our fund-raising drive. Please think about a donation -- BioEdge has no sugar daddy, no big institution, behind it. We depend on the generosity of our readers for survival.