From the Office of the General Counsel. Advance medical directives

The American Medical Association's Board of Trustees recently issued a report on advance medical directives, Living Wills, Durable Powers of Attorney, and Durable Powers of Attorney for Health Care (AMA; 1989). Here Orentlicher, writing under the auspices of the AMA's Office of the General Counsel, offers an expanded version of that report. Orentlicher's article discusses the advantages and drawbacks of living wills, the appointment of a proxy decision maker through a living will, a durable power of attorney, or a durable power of attorney for health care, and the physician's role in implementing treatment preferences.     

From the Office of the General Counsel. The right to die after Cruzan

In June 1990, the U.S. Supreme Court decided its first right-to-die case, Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of Health. Writing under the auspices of the American Medical Association's Office of the General Counsel, Orentlicher sumarizes the Court's holdings in Cruzan, draws several inferences from the decision about the right to refuse medical treatment, and discusses Cruzan's implications for physicians and patients. Orentlicher concludes that while the Court "eschewed an expansive construction of the right to refuse medical treatment, its decision...enlarged the right in many respects without restricting it in other respects...In any situation in which withdrawal of treatment was permissible before the Cruzan case, withdrawal is permissible now...in some situations in which withdrawal was not permissible before the Cruzan case, withdrawal is permissible now."     

From the Office of the General Counsel. Physician participation in assisted suicide

Writing under the auspices of the American Medical Association's Office of the General Counsel, a member of its Ethics and Health Policy Counsel discusses the AMA's position on physician participation in assisted suicide for the hopelessly ill. Advocates for assisted suicide see it as a natural extension of the right of a patient to refuse life-prolonging treatment. Orentlicher disputes this view, maintaining that there is a distinction between acting to hasten death and refraining from delaying it. He argues against physician involvement with assisted suicide on the grounds that it violates the nature of the physician patient relationship and compromises the role of the doctor as healer.