Ethics conference marks 10th year of Oregon's assisted suicide law

Published: 2004-11-08

PORTLAND, Ore. (CNS) -- Severe illness may erode the sort of dignity others ascribe to a person, but the person's essential human dignity abides, a physician who is also a Franciscan friar said at a conference in Portland on assisted suicide and end-of-life care. "The loss of attributed dignity does not rob a person of intrinsic dignity," Brother Daniel P. Sulmasy told doctors, nurses, chaplains and other health care workers in a session Oct. 14 at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center. The talk came as Oregon's Death With Dignity Act, the only law in the nation permitting physician-assisted suicide, approached its 10th anniversary. The conference was sponsored by the Portland Guild of the Catholic Medical Association, Physicians for Compassionate Care and the Providence Center for Health Care Ethics. One session was linked by video to 41 health care sites from Virginia to Hawaii.

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