by American Medical News

About the author: American Medical News is a weekly newspaper published by the American Medical Association (AMA).

Wrong messages about physician-assisted suicide were delivered in two courtrooms during spring 1996.

A Pontiac, Mich., jury came to the incredible conclusion that Jack Kevorkian, MD, was innocent on charges that he assisted in two suicides. A few days later, a federal appeals court in San Francisco struck down Washington state’s ban on physician-assisted suicide. The panel also telegraphed plainly that it will approve an Oregon law that allows the practice. That law is on hold while on appeal. [On October 14, 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Oregon law. On November 4, 1997, an effort to repeal the law was rejected by voters.]

Damage to Medical Ethics

We can’t recall a time when medical ethics has suffered...