COALITION WILL ADVOCATE BETTER CARE FOR FATALLY ILL.Byline: Lori Montgomery Knight-Ridder Tribune News Wire Spurred by research showing that many people die in pain, hooked to machines, with their wishes to stop treatment ignored, 72 major medical and consumer groups last week launched a national campaign to improve care of the dying. The effort, called Last Acts, brings together the American Medical Association American Medical Association (AMA), professional physicians' organization (founded 1847). Its goals are to protect the interests of American physicians, advance public health, and support the growth of medical science. , the American Hospital Association American Hospital Association (AHA), n.pr a nonprofit national organization of individuals, institutions, and organizations engaged in direct patient care. The association works to promote the improvement of health care services. , nurses, medical schools, hospice organizations and the American Association of Retired Persons American Association of Retired Persons: see AARP. - most of the powerhouse players in the ongoing debate over how best to care for people who are terminally ill Terminally Ill When a person is not expected to live more than 12 months. Notes: Any gifts given out by the afflicted person at this time may be considered as a dispersion of the estate rather than a gift. . At a news conference Thursday, coalition leaders, including former first lady Rosalynn Carter, said the group - like many of its member organizations - does not support physician-assisted suicide. Two lawsuits seeking to legalize le·gal·ize tr.v. le·gal·ized, le·gal·iz·ing, le·gal·iz·es To make legal or lawful; authorize or sanction by law. le assisted suicide assisted suicide: see euthanasia. are now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Instead, the group will push for changes in the medical profession, in the insurance industry and in public attitudes to make pain control and home care for the dying more widely available. Such reforms, the group hopes, will make assisted suicide unnecessary. ``We see requests for physician-assisted suicide as a symptom of the problem,'' said Steven Schroeder, president of the charitable Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, charitable organization devoted exclusively to health care issues. It was established in 1936 by Robert Wood Johnson (1893–1968), board chairman of the Johnson & Johnson medical products company. , which is pumping $1.7 million into Last Acts. If the campaign succeeds, Schroeder said, ``we will find a significant decrease in the number of people dying in pain, an increase in referrals to hospice, more people dying at home outside the hospital and far fewer requests for physician-assisted suicide.'' Advocates of assisted suicide cheered the effort, which significantly raises the profile of a theme they have hammered for years. Since retired pathologist Jack Kevorkian hooked his first patient to his fabled ``suicide machine'' in 1990, better care for the dying has become a rallying cry for a wide range of groups on both sides of the assisted-suicide issue. |
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