Opponents of Physician Assisted Suicide (P.A.S.) include doctors, patients, disability rights organizations, faith-based leaders, and many others.  They have successfully demonstrated that assisted suicide’s negative effect on patient care and vulnerable populations far outweighs the supporters’ arguments.  Although the Pro-Suicide movement unleashed a multi-million dollar national campaign in 2014, the movement has failed to enact pro-suicide legislation in an overwhelming majority of statewide attempts.

The American Medical Association code of ethics opposes Physician Assisted Suicide.  The AMA states, “Physician Assisted Suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer.”

Law professor O. Carter Snead notes dozens of respected, professional associations and groups representing vulnerable persons that oppose Physician Assisted Suicide, including (but not limited to) those listed below.

The following organizations oppose Physician Assisted Suicide (1)

• American Medical Association,

• World Health Organization,

• American Nurses Association,

• American Association of Critical-Care Nurses,

• Hospice Nurses Association,

• Oncology Nurses Society,

• American Osteopathic Association,

• American Psychiatric Association,

• American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine,

• American Academy of Pain Management,

• American Academy of Pain Medicine,

• American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons,

• American Academy of Physical Medicine,

• Society of Critical Care Medicine,

• American Academy of Neurology,

• American Neurological Association,

• American Society of Anesthesiologists,

• American Society of Clinical Pathologists,

• College of American Pathologists,

• American Society of Abdominal Surgeons,

• American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists,

• Society of Medical Consultants to the Armed Forces,

• American Institute of Life Threatening Illness and Loss,

• Massachusetts Medical Society,

• Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund,

• American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today,

• American Association of People with Disabilities,

• Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living,

• Justice for All,

• National Council on Disability,

• National Council on Independent Living,

• National Spinal Cord Injury Association,

• Not Dead Yet,

• TASH,

• World Association of Persons with Disabilities, and

• World Institute on Disability.

1. O. Carter Snead, “Physician Assisted Suicide: Objection in Principle and Prudence,” Notre Dame Law School Faculty Lectures and Presentation, Paper 26, 2014, http://scholarship.law.nd.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1023&context=law_faculty_lectures