REPORT FINDS 53% OF DOCTORS RESPONDING ASSISTED ONE AIDS PATIENT'S SUICIDE.Byline: New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times Dr. Stephen O'Brien Stephen Rothwell O'Brien (born 1 April 1957) is a Conservative Party politician in the United Kingdom. He is Member of Parliament (MP) for Eddisbury, and was first elected in a by-election, after Alastair Goodlad resigned. , an AIDS specialist here, said Wednesday that the question of suicide is never far from the minds of his patients who are suffering from some of the terrible effects of AIDS. ``I have had patients who have taken their own lives,'' said O'Brien, who tends to some 200 AIDS patients at the East Bay AIDS Center in Berkeley. ``And I have prescribed the medicines with which they have done that.'' An article being published today in The New England Journal of Medicine The New England Journal of Medicine (New Engl J Med or NEJM) is an English-language peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is one of the most popular and widely-read peer-reviewed general medical journals in the world. indicates that O'Brien is not alone. The article reports that a survey of 118 members of the Bay Area Community Consortium, an association of local AIDS doctors, found that 53 percent of the respondents had reported assisting at least one of their patients in committing suicide. The survey defines assisting suicide as ``prescription of a lethal dose lethal dose n. Abbr. LD The dose of a chemical or biological preparation that is likely to cause death. of narcotics narcotics n. 1) techinically, drugs which dull the senses. 2) a popular generic term for drugs which cannot be legally possessed, sold, or transported except for medicinal uses for which a physician or dentist's prescription is required. to a patient.'' It was conducted from November 1994 to January 1995. While the survey predates the advent of powerful new AIDS drugs and reflects only a small number of AIDS doctors nationwide, it nonetheless suggests that doctor-assisted suicide is has been a common, if silent, option for patients and doctors fighting AIDS. Other studies found that 7 percent to 9 percent of doctors reported assisting patients in suicide. The latest report, written by five San Francisco medical professionals, comes at a time when the issue is under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court. The court heard arguments in early January on two federal appellate court A court having jurisdiction to review decisions of a trial-level or other lower court. An unsuccessful party in a lawsuit must file an appeal with an appellate court in order to have the decision reviewed. decisions supporting the right to suicide. ``It's an extremely frightening issue for physicians,'' said Dr. Milton Estes, the director of the Forensic AIDS Project for the city of San Francisco
Estes, like many doctors, would not say whether he had ever assisted a suicide. Still, he said that counseling on suicide, and its methods, is ``an unspoken fact'' for doctors treating AIDS patients. Even doctors who speak more openly about suicide are careful to stress the patient's primary role in making the decision. ``It's not like, `Here's some morphine, go kill yourself,' '' said O'Brien, who said he never prescribed medicines specifically for a suicide. ``I say this medicine is for pain, this medicine is for sleep and this is for anxiety. And a lot of them already know how to mix them appropriately to take their own lives.'' Other doctors say their loyalty to patients overrides legal concerns. |
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