Physician-Assisted Suicide
While I recognize that not every member agrees with every position taken by APA, it does seem to me that it was extremely ill advised for APA to hastily join the AMA in an amicus curiae brief defending the constitutionality of state bans on physician-
assisted suicide. I believe that a very substantial number of members disagree with the APA position (including me) and like Dr. Lawrence Hartmann believe that it is premature for APA to take a stance on such a vital issue that has not been thoroughly discussed and thought through.
Unfortunately APA increasingly seems to take stands on issues only tangentially related to psychiatry, such as abortion rights (which I support). Perhaps APA would be better advised to consider whether such stands alienate many members and in the long run lead to a disillusionment with and weakening of APA as an organization genuinely representing the views of American psychiatrists.
Maxwell H. Soll, M.D.
Dallas, Tex.
(Psychiatric News, March 7, 1997)
