The World Medical Association has gathered at the heart of the Catholic Church to debate its policy on end-of-life care.
“We don’t carry out euthanasia as often as it is asked for,” Dutch general practitioner Carin Littooji said, advocating for assisted dying on a bench usually reserved for bishops in the Vatican.
The choice of location sends a clear message about the organization’s position on the issue of euthanasia, said Jeff Blackmer, vice president of the association in Canada.
“It’s like having a human rights discussion in North Korea,” said Blackmer, whose home nation allows terminally ill patients to legally receive medical help to die. “It’s not a neutral environment.”
Euthanasia, practiced by a doctor, and assisted suicide, performed by a patient, are deemed unethical by the organization, which counts more than 100 national medical organizations among its members.
The standards-setting body encourages doctors to refrain from supporting the procedures — even if they are legal in their country — but associations in Canada and the Netherlands, where assisted dying is also legal in limited cases, are calling for a change in attitude.
A patient in unbearable pain who requests an assisted death is monitored over a long period by a team of doctors, Littooji said.
“It’s a road we walk together over time; the end can be euthanasia, but far more often it’s a natural death,” Littooji added.
German Medical Association president Frank Ulrich Montgomery quoted the 2,400-year-old Hippocratic Oath to the conference: “Neither will I administer a poison to anybody when asked to do so, nor will I suggest such a course.”
While he cited surveys from some industrialized nations which show majority support for terminally ill people legally ending their own lives with doctors’ help, he questioned whether it is “compassionate” to kill your patient.
“In liberal societies, people want to have choice and options right up to the very end of their life,” he said. “Are our ethics, our deepest beliefs, dependent on polls?”
However, Dutch Royal Medical Association chairman Rene Heman told the conference that euthanasia “can be accepted.”
“It will never feel good for a doctor,” he said. “The possibility of euthanasia does not undermine the trust between patient and doctor. The patient knows he can rely on this physician.”
A letter from the Pope was read to the conference, reiterating the Catholic Church’s unwavering opposition to both acts.
During a coffee break, delegates were also offered books with titles such as Post-Abortion Trauma or The Risk of Eugenics by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in