Executive Director - Euthanasia Prevention Coalition
The CMA and KNMG brought a motion to the (WMA) meeting in Iceland (October 2 - 4), calling on the WMA to become neutral on doctors killing their patients by euthanasia or assisting a suicide.
Delegates attending the WMA meeting in Iceland have stated that the CMA and KNMG motion was withdrawn due to a lack of international support.
The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition expects that the CMA and KNMG will regroup and try again in the near future.
The WMA Declaration on Euthanasia and WMA Statement on Physician Assisted Suicide state:
The August edition of the World Medical Association Journal provided an analysis of the four meetings held by the WMA concerning its position on euthanasia and assisted suicide. The WMA regional meetings concluded that very few delegates world-wide supported a change in the positions on assisted death and nearly all of the medical associations agree that euthanasia and assisted suicide are unethical.
The WMA Declaration on Euthanasia and WMA Statement on Physician Assisted Suicide state:
‘Euthanasia, that is the act of deliberately ending the life of a patient, even at the patient’s own request or at the request of close relatives, is unethical’.
‘Physician assisted suicide, like euthanasia, is unethical and must be condemned by the medical profession. Where the assistance of the physician is intentionally and deliberately directed at enabling an individual to end his or her own life, the physician acts unethically’.
Recently, seven Canadian physicians wrote an article that was published in the current World Medical Association Journal (WMJ) titled: Euthanasia in Canada: a Cautionary Tale concerning their experience with euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada. Dr Mark Komrad, a leading psychiatrist, wrote an Open Letter to Representatives of the World Medical Association explaining the American Psychiatric Association position on euthanasia and assisted suicide that was published in the Psychiatric Times.
Thank God! For now - and may they come to realise how unethical and harmful euthnasia really is. Improved palliative care and positive loving attention are what vulnerable terminally ill people need.
ReplyDeleteI give thanks to God, today, that the majority of the world's medical doctors still see their role as healers and NOT MURDERERS. I am, however, so very sad and embarrassed that my country, Canada, is one of the two countries pushing the acceptance of the most unmedical procedure of euthanasia.
ReplyDeleteGisele Kelly
Thank goodness the WMA has not fallen under the spell of groups like "Death With Dignity". This should signal to those who support the practice of euthanasia that they are ethically out of step with the rest of the world. Maybe this will cause some of them to question their own position.
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