A euthanasia expert is concerned about formation of a new doctor group's involvement in assisted suicide.





Doctors already participating in terminating people have formed the National Clinicians Conference on Medical Aid in Dying with a plan to teach more doctors and other medical professionals how to kill. It may also be used to recruit people to perform the task because of the shortage of doctors willing to do so.

Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition points to Washington, D.C. which could only find two doctors willing to perform the work.

“But that shouldn't surprise anybody,” he says. “Doctors don't go into medical school because they want to learn how to kill people. It's usually because they have the intention of providing treatment and care for people.”

One concern about the new organization is that many doctors who joined are also involved in palliative care, which makes people comfortable until natural death. That is a concern, Schandenberg explains, because there are numerous complaints about abuse of medicine during palliative care.

“Obviously doctors who are willing to kill,” he warns, “are more likely to abuse the whole area of palliative care.”

The new group is headed by Lonny Shavelson, a doctor who has long been at the forefront of promoting assisted suicide.