Con

The American Medical Association (AMA), in an Oct. 10, 1995 letter by then AMA General Counsel Kirk Johnson to then Michigan Attorney General Frank Kelley, stated the following:

“By invoking the physician-patient relationship to cloak his actions, Jack Kevorkian perverts the idea of the caring and committed physician, and weakens the public’s trust in the medical profession.

The AMA establishes the Code of Ethics for the medical profession. One of the fundamental principles of that code is that physicians must not act with the intent of causing the death of their patients. Physician-assisted suicide is simply incompatible with the physician’s role as healer. When faced with patients who are terminally ill and suffering, physicians must relieve their suffering by providing adequate comfort care.

This obligation is paramount: It is ethical for physicians to provide effective pain medication even if the medication may have the side effect of suppressing respiration and hastening death…

[N]o civilized society should condone assisted suicide as practiced by Jack Kevorkian. Mr Kevorkian’s actions are not those of a primary treating physician. Rather, he serves merely as a reckless instrument of death.”

Oct. 10, 1995