- DR ROSANNA CAPOLINGUA, AMA PRESIDENT 21/04/08 (from a contributor) -

Dear Dr Capolingua,

Being a person who supports legislative, social reform to accommodate autonomous end of life decisions and without prejudice, I have taken the liberty to correspond and please find for your awareness a following copy of my Senate Committee Hearing submission.

In perusing this submission, please note therein an enlightening report covering the tenth anniversary of the Oregon US 1997 “Dignity in Dying Bill”. With the passing of a decade, this time-frame has provided beneficial and valuable information as to what does and what doesn’t work when it comes to end of life questions.

Within your capacity as AMA president your reported address in part to the recent Darwin Senate Committee hearing on behalf of a religious lobby group as reported via ABC News 16/04/08 re; “Native people fear euthanasia law---AMA claim” was patronizing to the indigenous people and a view surely not shared by the medical profession at large.

Such paternalistic comment is absurd and inconsistent with the provisions of the NT-ROTI Act simply because, if still lawful today a doctor could not offer voluntary euthanasia, the patient must request it, and along with other safeguards a persons request must be sanctioned by two doctors.

The disempowerment of the terminally ill who are the most vulnerable in our society is discriminatory and an imposition in this climate of promoting a “Good Ideas Summit”. On behalf of the majority 80% upwards in support for Choicein physician assisted dying there would be an expectation for the AMA to support good progressive law instead of negatively supporting the opposite.

In my opinion the AMA should be demonstrating more understanding and empathy for patient autonomy via the adoption of a more open minded stance and be promoting the need for overdue change and for strict privacy between doctor-patient relationship on such an important social reform issue.

Yours truly

RB

April 21, 2008