APA joined the AMA in an amicus curiae brief opposing doctor-assisted suicide as the United States Supreme Court heard arguments on the issue early last month.

Small groups of protesters gathered in chilly weather outside to express both support and opposition. Supporters from the Hemlock Society unfurled a large banner, while about 20 people in wheelchairs from the wryly named group "Not Dead Yet" waved signs condemning assisted suicide as either misguided or diabolical.

In opposition to APA, a coalition including APA past presidents Lawrence Hartmann, M.D., Judd Marmor, M.D., and APA life fellow and retired U.S. Assistant Surgeon General William Pollin, M.D., filed an amicus voicing strong support for a right to doctor-assisted suicide.

Although the AMA amicus deplored physician-assisted suicide as "antithetical to the central mission of healing," it also made a strong case for adequate use of pain-relieving drugs "even in circumstances where such medication might hasten death."

Observers of the January 8 hearing in Washington, D.C., predicted that the conservative court would rule against establishing a constitutional right to doctor assistance in suicide, leaving the matter to the states. The court agreed to take up the issue after two federal appellate courts struck down laws in the states of Washington and New York, ruling that those states' bans on doctor-assisted suicide was unconstitutional.

The Justices are expected to rule on the issue by the end of the term in late June or early July. (Psychiatric News, February 7, 1997)