'Doctors must not kill'

JAMA. 1988 Apr 8;259(14):2139-40.

Abstract

KIE: Four physicians respond to "It's over, Debbie," an anonymous resident physician's account of an incident when he or she injected a terminally ill cancer patient with a lethal dose of morphine (JAMA 1988 Jan 8; 259(2): 272). Gaylin and his colleagues condemn both the physician's violation of legal and ethical norms, and the conduct of JAMA's editor in publishing the article without editorial rebuke or comment. They warn that the issue of active euthanasia "touches medicine at its very moral center," and that, as pressure to legalize euthanasia in response to patient demand increases, the medical profession must repudiate direct and intentional killing of patients and discipline doctors who kill.

MeSH terms

  • American Medical Association
  • Editorial Policies*
  • Ethics, Medical*
  • Euthanasia*
  • Euthanasia, Active*
  • Female
  • Homicide*
  • Humans
  • Professional Misconduct
  • United States