Two Catholic organizations are calling on physicians to urge the American Medical Association to maintain its current stance against physician-assisted suicide. The call from the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Catholic Bioethics Center comes as the A.M.A.’s Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs gathers information to “outline the current landscape” on physician-assisted suicide. Representatives of the Catholic organizations are concerned that this effort by the association is a first step toward taking a neutral stance on assisted suicide, which could open the door to wider acceptance of such a practice. Greg Schleppenbach, associate director of the Secretariat of Pro-Life Activities, also urged nonphysicians to contact the A.M.A. and share their concerns. “We all have a stake in the medical professions not adopting assisted suicide,” he said.
Doctors Against Assisted Suicide
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
Although the Catholics invented the practice of excommunication to deal with severe sins, other religious groups have also adopted it for their own purposes.
John Cogley was once called “the most prominent American Roman Catholic journalist of his generation.” The onetime executive editor of Commonweal also played a key role in the election of J.F.K.
Catholic life in the United States is deeply rooted in the reforms of the Second Vatican Council. But that might not mean what you think it means.
Many professionals who care for strangers are not religious workers, but they play a pivotal role in reinforcing the imago Dei, the notion that all people are made in the image of God.