American Medical Association ethics committee resists pressure to kill.

This article was published by OneNewsNow on May 11, 2018.

Alex Schadenberg

An expert on doctor-assisted suicide is praising a medical association for taking a stand against it.

Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition says he was grateful to watch the American Medical Association this week take a stand on the controversial issue.

Under pressure to examine the hot-button issue, the association established a study committee to debate changing the existing policy by supporting doctors' participation or by taking a neutral stance.

"And the ethics committee, "Schadenberg reports, "has decided, no, that they should maintain their position against assisted suicide."

A full vote by the AMA is coming in June.

It's our hope," he tells OneNewsNow, "that the ethics committee is respected and that the position on assisted suicide will remain the same: that they oppose assisted suicide."

Some state medical associations such as California's took a neutral stance and assisted suicide passed. In New York, which is considering legalization, the state medical association resisted pressure and is opposed to doctor-assisted suicide.

Schadenberg says a doctor once told him that the AMA would oppose the practice if they were taking lives with the barrel of a gun.

"But because it's being done in the cloak of medicine, and they're doing it with lethal drugs," he says, "suddenly that makes it okay."

• American Medical Association says NO to assisted suicide.