AMA Issues Guidelines to Help People Die With Dignity

CHICAGO — The American Medical Assn., which opposes physician-assisted suicide, issued guidelines Sunday to help doctors let people die with dignity.

“In the last phase of life, people seek peace and dignity. The AMA firmly believes that every patient should be able to reasonably expect quality care at the end of life,” said Linda Emanuel, the group’s vice president for ethics and standards.

She said the guidelines were designed to educate doctors and their patients.

The guidelines list a number of “elements of quality care” ranging from giving patients the right to discuss their end-of-life care to making sure that physicians are skilled in detecting and managing pain, fatigue, depression and other symptoms of terminal illness.

Of the patient’s preferences for or against life-sustaining measures, the guidelines state:

“Whether the intervention be less complex (such as antibiotics or artificial nutrition or hydration) or complex and more invasive (such as dialysis or mechanical respiration) and whether the situation involves imminent or more distant dying, patients’ preferences regarding withholding or withdrawing intervention should be honored in accordance with the legally and ethically established rights of patients.”