Guidelines proposed by the pro-euthanasia Dutch Medical Association (KNMG) call on doctors in the Netherlands to refer patients for euthanasia ”” even if they have moral or religious objections to the practice of killing patients.
The Dutch medical group released the proposal, “The Role of the Physician in the Voluntary Termination of Life,” a position paper saying, “Patients, too, often have difficulty telling a physician they have an authentic wish to die. Physicians, for their part, are under an obligation to take such requests seriously. This also means that if a physician cannot or does not wish to honour a patient’s request for euthanasia or assisted suicide he must give the patient a timely and clear explanation of why, and furthermore must then refer or transfer the patient to another physician in good time.”
God forbid that American doctors should ever be required by members of their profession to do this! Doctors are bound by their Hippocratic Oath to [i]save[/i] lives, the last I heard.
This from a country woefully lacking in hospice and palliative care. Which is no surprise. I remember reading in First Things an article by an Amsterdam writer about his neighbour. This neighbour’s 90-year-old mother was euthanized. She was not ill. she was not handicapped. She was just tired of living. She asked for death, was duly examined by two doctors (one a psychiatrist) and approved for doctor assisted suicide. In due course the neighbour, her son, and other members of the family crowded into here room to watch the physician give her a lethal injection. Chilling and grotesque.
[b]And DEVILISH![/b]
Gee whiz! Physician’s consciences have been forced over birth control and over abortion, and over sexual freedom, and over a myriad of details, but NOW that it actually affects the people who have been VOTING to curtail physician conscience all these years it is “chilling” Huh?
What goes around, comes around. Nobody spoke up for physicians when Ob-Gyne residents were forced to participate in abortions. Nobody spoke up for physicians when physicians were forced to prescribe birth control for unmarried women. It is not “members of the profession” that has been forcing physician conscience, it is members of the Democratic party. Why are they upset now? I’m really surprised. What did they think would happen?
The Dutch physicians group represents only half the doctors in Holland, but is the one supported by the state.
Similarly the AMA represents only 16% of US physicians (almost all of them in academic medicine) but is supported by the government who forces all physicians and hospitals to use the AMAs stupid disease classification/billing system, while paying the AMA royalties for doing so. This has allowed the AMA to exist independant of the will of the physicians, and it means that no other physician group can challenge them, “since doctors are represented by the AMA”.
This permits the US government to force physicians to “ask for stuff” they don’t want by using the AMA as their mouthpiece.
It has been a long time since the AMA represented physicians, and an equally long time since the Dutch Medical association did so.
Did nobody wonder how it came about that the AMA begged to set up a formal physicians “black list” – eg the AMA list of “bad physicians” . The AMA black list not only includes physicians who were sued, or fired (often unjustly) but also folks whose administrators said they were “disruptive” eg challenged the status quo.
I’m sorry that people are now feeling “chilled”. However since they really didn’t give a d*&m up until now, I really have no sympathy. I really don’t believe that Americans didn’t know that physicians were being screwed. They just figured it was okay because it wasn’t them, and anyway they’re just “rich doctors” they deserve whatever they get.
Me, I anticipate being euthanized when I get too sick to work. I reconcilled myself to this 10 years ago (and frankly look forward to it as a potential blessing). Euthanasia coming to the US could have been stopped 20 years ago had the American people wished to support their physicians instead of attacking them. I don’t think it can be stopped now after 40 years of demonizing physicians, and 20 years of attacking physician conscience.
Personally, I anticipate leaving Neurology when the time comes that the Dutch laws come to the US, and force us to participate. I think that will be in 5-10 years. Hopefully my kids will be on their feet by then. I’m making my youngest take accelerated courses with the expectation that she will complete college by age 20 instead of 22. Right now, the plan is to either step back and work urgent care only, or to leave medicine and teach in community college in the US, or simply leave the US to practice in Asia when that time comes.
“if a physician cannot or does not wish to honour a patient’s request for euthanasia or assisted suicide he must give the patient a timely and clear explanation of why, and furthermore must then refer or transfer the patient to another physician in good time.â€
Substitute “honour a patient’s request for birth control” or “in vitro fertilization” or “the morning after pill” for “honour a patient’s request for euthanasia” and you will have EXISTING AMERICAN LAW.
Nobody objected before. I good friend of mine was thrown out of her pediatrics residency for trying to save a baby in an abortion born live. She was black listed, and never worked in pediatrics again. Eventually she became a sort of administrative type.
If I hear any liberal whining on the subject of “evil doctors” I will LAUGH. Patients get the physicians they deserve.
And she was thrown out in about 1983 if I recall. It was only just getting started then. It has gotten much worse for physicians of tender conscience since then, and the penalties for speaking up have increased, as have the lawsuits by those who choose to be offended by physician conscience.
Again, WHAT DID YOU THINK WOULD HAPPEN? It was obviously headed this way even then.