P.009 Physician assisted death and the neurosurgeon

Professional integrity and physician-assisted death.

The practice of voluntary physician-assisted death as a last resort is compatible with doctors' duties to practice competently, to avoid harming patients unduly, to refrain from medical fraud, and to preserve patients' trust. It therefore does not violate physicians' professional integrity.

Organ donation after physician-assisted death.

In 2002, Belgium was the second country in the world, after the Netherlands, to legalize physician-assisted death and euthanasia in very restricted conditions [1]. Euthanasia has to be required by a conscious patient suffering from an irreversible affliction inducing physical and/or psychological suffering, with no hope for improvement or for rapid spontaneous death; request for euthanasia has ...

Physician-assisted death is not palliative care.

CMA President response: physician-assisted death.

Although Downar and colleagues present a very detailed examination of many of the issues involved in our growing national examination of how Canadians expect to manage their care at the end-oflife, the authors unfortunately get the cart well before the horse by focusing solely on physician-assisted death. Addressing the dire need for improved access to palliative care services, for which the la...

On Kamisar, killing, and the future of physician-assisted death.

In a famous 1958 article, Yale Kamisar brilliantly examined the hazards of abuse and of slippery slope extensions that subsequently, for 46 years, served to thwart legalization of physician-assisted death (PAD). This paper shows that during the same period law and culture have effectively accepted a variety of ways for stricken people to hasten death, with physicians involved in diverse roles. ...