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AMA continues to oppose your rights

By Neil Francis - posted Thursday, 1 December 2016


Was it a foregone conclusion?

I was unsurprised at the AMA executive's continued opposition to assisted dying. The signals were clear.

While the policy review was in play, AMA President Dr Michael Gannon made a series of tweets and media comments, all unsupportive of or directly opposed to assisted dying. Here's a few.

In response to an article in The Australian "Catholic stance allows eased exit", he tweeted a faux 'competition' between palliative care and assisted dying:

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13 Aug 2016:  Different views society on assisted dying. Hope all agree improved PalliativeCare access a priority @westaustralian

He also tweeted in support of the 'doctrine of double effect', a controversial policy (which the AMA promotes as uncontroversial) that contends it's quite OK for a doctor to hasten a patient's death after all… provided they don't really mean to: hardly a robust or verifiable standard.

24 Aug 2016: Doctors should be careful, must obey the law and understand their code of #ethics. Double effect is not #Euthanasia

In an article in The Australian on 15th September, Dr Gannon argued against assisted dying on the basis of it being 'extremely complex.' If complexity were a reason to oppose anything, the AMA would be opposed to the entire healthcare system: it's incredibly complex. His argument collapses at the slightest inspection.

18 Sep 2016: Hippocratic medicine older than some of the world's great religions, every political ideology, trend #ethics @medwma

Dr Gannon then invokes the Hippocratic Oath, which bans assisted dying. That's cherry-picking at its best: doctors do not take the Hippocratic Oath: it swears allegiance to ancient Greek gods, forbids women from entering the profession and outlaws surgery, amongst other things.

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19 Sep 2016: Agree @DrSallyCockburn admire #euthanasia work done by @CMA_Docs. Equally careful, compassionate, intelligent approach from @TheBMA #ethics

He commends the British Medical Association's "intelligent approach" against assisted dying: an approach I have comprehensively exposedas superficial and ill-informed fear-mongering, fiction, flip-flop and hubris.

1 Oct 2016: It is inevitable that if #Euthanasia laws are passed, they will over time be expanded to include children, mentally ill, vulnerable #ethic

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About the Author

Neil Francis runs DyingForChoice.com, a website dedicated to reporting facts and exposing misinformation about assisted dying. He is a past President of the World Federation of Right To Die Societies. He was Foundation Chair and CEO of YourLastRight.com and a past President and CEO of Dying With Dignity Victoria.

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