BY DANIEL GAITAN | daniel@lifemattersmedia.org

One of the nation’s largest and most prestigious medical journals has published an article in support of physician-assisted suicide.

Terminally ill patients facing prolonged suffering should be allowed to end their lives with doctor-prescribed barbiturates, according to A Piece of My Mind, published in the September issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The op-ed was written by Dr. M. John Rowe III, who died in 2014 from drugs made available through Oregon’s controversial Death With Dignity Act. He suffered from myelodysplastic syndrome disorder.

“Death can be easy or it can be utterly, devastatingly miserable,” Rowe wrote. “I believe it to be morally, ethically, humanely, and mercifully unconscionable that a dying person must accept prolonged suffering if that individual does not wish it.” He writes that so-called Death with Dignity legislation is needed because of the “myth” that hospice and palliative care can control physical and emotional suffering.

Soon after the article was posted online, Final Options Illinois (formerly known as the Hemlock Society), an organization advocating physician-assisted suicide, sent an email to supporters claiming that the “wall of opposition is starting to crack.” The organization is encouraging supporters to circulate copies of it among physicians.

The Chicago-based American Medical Association is the nation’s largest organization of physicians and represents nearly 200,000 doctors, medical students and residents. It remains opposed to physician-assisted suicide.

“It is understandable, though tragic, that some patients in extreme duress – such as those suffering from a terminal, painful, debilitating illness – may come to decide that death is preferable to life,” according to an AMA statement sent to Life Matters Media. “However, allowing physicians to participate in assisted suicide would cause more harm than good. Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks. ”

Physician-assisted suicide is legal in only a handful of states including Oregon (the first state to legalize the practice in 1997), Washington (passed by ballot measure), Vermont (passed by state Legislature), New Mexico and Montana (allowed by the courts).

Many physicians, bioethicists and religious leaders caution that physician-assisted suicide is incompatible with physicians’ primary role as healer and would foster resentment towards sick people hoping to live as long as possible.