Commentary

RIP Dr. Welby

The California Medical Association has announced that it is on board with a great re-write of medical ethics. As of last month, it no longer opposes physician-assisted suicide. Doctors in that state will no longer be bound by the Hippocratic Oath, which has already been partly repealed by the broad tolerance of abortionists within the medical profession. But now the ethical cancer has reached around to include the old, the infirm and those in despair.

The move is part of broader effort in California to legalize assisted-suicide. The CMA has withdrawn its opposition to legislation pending in the state Assembly. 

The present effort by the Death Caucus in California is their sixth attempt to seduce people into killing themselves. In 1992, the people of California voted down a measure to legalize assisted suicide. Four previous bills have been defeated in the California Legislature between 1995 and 2008.

Apparently the California Democrat Party has been largely taken-over by death advocates, as two committee votes have moved the bill forward on straight party line votes.

In a small concession to those doctors still holding to the traditional Western ethical system, the California Medical Association insisted that doctors opposed to suicide be protected from any requirement that they refer or otherwise assist a patient seeking to end their lives.

Doctors speaking for the Association rationalized the policy change by pointing to changing cultural attitudes toward suicide.

UPDATE:  The California State Senate passed legislaton on June 4 to legalize assisted suicide in that state by a vote of 23-14.  The legislation (SB128) now goes to the Assembly.