The Massachusetts Medical Society voted last week to maintain its stance against physician-assisted suicide, according to an MMS press release.
Although MMS officials recognized patient dignity in terminally ill people as a factor, more than 75 percent of the MMS’s house of delegates voted against facilitated suicide at their assembly last week.
Groups such as the Death with Dignity National Center, a non-profit organization, have attempted to assist “terminally ill, mentally competent” adults with the right to “request and receive a prescription to hasten death under certain specific safeguards,” according to its website.
In September, the Massachusetts Death with Dignity Act moved one step closer to a spot on the 2012 ballot when state Attorney General Martha Coakley approved a proposed ballot.
The proposition would still need thousands of signatures to pass, as well as a decision from the legislature.
However, MMS president Lynda Young said in the press release that medically assisted suicide for terminally ill patients does not match up with the foundation’s objectives.
“Physicians of our society have clearly declared that physician-assisted suicide is inconsistent with the physician’s role as healer and health care provider,” Young said in the press release. “At the same time we recognize the importance of patient dignity and the critical role that physicians have in end-of-life care.”
The MMS’s House of Delegates has recognized a policy against physician-assisted suicide, according to the press release, since 1996.
Young said the resolution also includes “support for patient dignity and the alleviation of pain and suffering at the end of life.”
She said that the MMS is committed to providing “physicians treating terminally-ill patients with the ethical, medical, social and legal education, training and resources” for the dignity of patients and their families.
Oregon and Washington are the only states that currently allow physician-assisted suicide, where doctors can prescribe mentally competent patients with lethal medicine.
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