Paris, France - With euthanasia now decriminalized under certain circumstances in the Netherlands, and other nations considering similar legislation, the World Medical Association (WMA) is expected to approve over the weekend a resolution reinforcing its position that euthanasia is unethical.
``The World Medical Association reaffirms its strong belief that euthanasia is in conflict with basic ethical principles of medical practice, and...strongly encourages all physicians to refrain from participating in euthanasia, even if national law allows it,'' a draft resolution reads.
The proposal was approved by the WMA's Medical Ethics Committee Thursday at a meeting here, with only the representative of the Royal Dutch Medical Association voting against it. The full council of the WMA is due to ratify it over the weekend, after which it will go to the WMA's annual assembly in India in October.
The subject of euthanasia has been on the minds of numerous governments around the world, most notably in the Netherlands. In April, the nation's upper house of parliament voted by a clear majority to decriminalize euthanasia, making the Netherlands the first country in the world to do so.
Elsewhere, Belgium has agreed on a draft law to legalize the practice, subject to parliamentary approval; and a politician from the New South Wales Greens Party in Australia, Ian Cohen, also proposed a bill stating that euthanasia should be legal for patients suffering from terminal illnesses who want a comfortable death. In the US, Oregon allows assisted suicide.
Commenting on the issue, WMA Chairman Randolph Smoak noted that, ``We are a profession whose sole aim is to preserve life and to help people get well when they are sick. And helping people as they enter the dying process is not something we probably emphasised as much as we should be doing.''
He added, ``Certainly, with the frustrations that we have seen in the US with end-of-life care, we can see how some members of the public have seen fit to promote alternatives. And we do believe that as a profession we can do a better job in end-of-life care, and that will more or less alleviate, or remove entirely, the need to have euthanasia.''
Moreover, evidence that the profession is improving end-of-life care is starting to show, Smoak said.
``We certainly will do better in pain management in end of life, in preserving dignity for the patient up to the very end, and meeting the spiritual and other needs that a patient has at the end of life,'' he stated.
Smoak noted that the WMA has long opposed euthanasia, and that it is ``very clear that the nations around the world represented here are unequivocally opposed to euthanasia, with one exception.''
Pro-Life Infonet
07. mai 2001