1950 – World Medical Association Condemns Euthanasia; Poll Shows Declining Support for Physician-Assisted Suicide

The World Medical Association votes to recommend to all national medical associations that euthanasia be condemned “under any circumstances.” In the same year, the American Medical Association issues a statement that the majority of doctors do not believe in euthanasia.

When an opinion poll in 1950 asked Americans whether they approved of allowing physicians by law to end incurably ill patients’ lives by painless means if they and their families requested it, only 36 percent answered ‘yes,’ approximately 10 percent less than in the late 1930s.”