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.
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