News in brief - Oct. 9, 2006

Bill to ban assisted suicide on hold - Utah forecasts recruiting shortage of 84 doctors annually - Texas doctors have new rules for minors seeking an abortion - New med school goes ahead in Ariz.

Bill to ban assisted suicide on hold

Sen. Ron Wyden (D, Ore.) last month placed a hold on a bill that would bar physicians from prescribing federally controlled substances for the purpose of helping terminally ill patients commit suicide. The hold means that the Assisted Suicide Prevention Act, proposed by Sen. Sam Brownback (R, Kan.) in August, needs 60 senators' approval to proceed.

"The government ought not attempt to override or preempt the individual and the family values, religious beliefs and wishes," Wyden said.

Brownback's bill came in response to a January Supreme Court ruling that U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft exceeded his authority when he issued a 2001 directive stating that physician-assisted suicide was not a "legitimate medical purpose" for which doctors could prescribe federally controlled drugs.

"When the law permits killing as a medical 'treatment,' society's moral guidelines are blurred," Brownback said when introducing the bill. The AMA, whose policy says physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the doctor's role as healer, has not taken a position on the Brownback bill.

Utah forecasts recruiting shortage of 84 doctors annually

The Utah Medical Education Council estimates that the state will need to recruit 270 physicians a year to keep up with population growth. While each year about 52 to 60 graduates of the state's medical residents choose to stay after they graduate, that still leaves 210 to 218 physicians who must be recruited from out of state.

Currently, that's about 84 more physicians a year then the state has been able to find.

In 2003, the state had 3,894 practicing physicians, according to the council, or about 165 physicians per 100,000 people, well below the recommended 290 physicians per 100,000.

Texas doctors have new rules for minors seeking an abortion

The Texas Medical Board recently adopted new rules that require physicians to get written and notarized parental consent before they can perform an abortion on a minor.

A state law passed in 2005 required physicians to obtain written parental consent, but the board did not finalize a consent form until August 2006. The board weighed public input on the matter at its board meetings while the form was developed.

The consent form lists the risks and hazards of having an abortion. At press time, the rules were set to take effect Sept. 28. A physician could face discipline if the medical board receives a complaint and the board finds the physician in violation of the rules.

New med school goes ahead in Ariz.

The A.T. Still University of Health Sciences' College of Osteopathic Medicine in Mesa, Ariz., received provisional accreditation this September by the American Osteopathic Assn.'s Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation. The first class of 100 medical students is expected to start in July 2007.

The new medical school is part of a 50-acre campus anchoring the 132-acre Arizona Health & Technology Park, a half-billion dollar education, health care and technology park that the university and Vanguard Health Systems owns.

Douglas L. Wood, DO, PhD, a past president of the American Assn. of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine and dean of the new school, said the school plans to take a humanistic approach to education and health care.

"Small study groups and problem solving will receive greater emphasis than lectures," Dr. Wood said, and students will train at community health centers, which will have a high ratio of physicians to students.