Page 17 - Delaware Medical Journal - July/August 2019
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OPINION
current position. Which of the following
position? Exactly 50% favored a position of “engaged neutrality.” Although there the survey:
“MSD will neither support nor oppose Physician-Assisted Suicide/Medical Aid in Dying, recognizing the right of each physician to act in accordance with his/ her personally-held ethical principles and values within the patient/physician relationship based on shared decision making between the physician and the terminally-ill patient, while monitoring
and informing our membership on this issue.”
The remaining 50% of those who did not support MSD’s current position said they favored a position in support of Physician- Assisted Suicide/Medical Aid in Dying.
There are now eight states and the District of Columbia that have legalized “Death with Dignity,” with Maine being the most recent to enact such a law. As Immediate Past President Richard W. Henderson, MD stated last year when MSD sent out a similar survey, “The strength of the Medical Society of Delaware is evident in both the diversity
of thoughts and the diversity of opinions of our members on issues, as well as the willingness to engage in an open and honest dialogue about them. The issue of PAS [Physician-Assisted Suicide] has 1
MSD continues to monitor and consider feedback from its members, as MSD wants to ensure that we are representing our member physicians.
REFERENCE
1. Henderson, R.W., Options...at the End of Life, Delaware Medical Journal, April 2018, Vol. 90, No. 4, pgs. 105-106.
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