Doctors favor physician-assisted suicide less than patients do

But an opinion poll shows doctors' support up 2 percentage points from a poll earlier this year.

By Kevin B. O'Reilly, AMNews staff. Nov. 21, 2005.

Nearly six in 10 physicians believe doctors should be legally permitted to dispense prescriptions for life-ending drugs to terminally ill patients who request them, according to a poll released last month.

Of 677 doctors randomly surveyed by the independent market-research firm HCD Research, 59% said yes when asked, "Do you think physicians should be given the right to dispense prescriptions to patients to end their life?" Forty-one percent said no.

When asked who should decide whether physician-assisted suicide is a "legitimate medical purpose" -- the question at issue in Gonzales v. Oregon, now before the U.S. Supreme Court -- 25% said the state should decide and 21% said it should be the federal government. But 54% of doctors said neither level of government should be the one making the decision.

Some physicians questioned the poll's findings, saying the wording of the question skewed results. Others said it was a good reflection of what practicing physicians believe.

"It matters enormously what physicians think," said Barbara Coombs Lee, co-CEO of the Denver-based Compassion & Choices, which supports physician-assisted suicide under a set of strict circumstances. "People look to physicians for information, for wise counsel and for a clear explanation of the options." She said that she wishes the American Medical Association would change its policy against physician-assisted suicide.

AMA delegates have, on multiple occasions, passed policy stating physician-assisted suicide is "fundamentally inconsistent with the physician's role as healer." AMA policy asks physicians to respect a patient's end-of-life directive to withhold or withdraw treatment, though physicians also are duty-bound to ease suffering as much as possible, even when those directives are in place.