Statement on euthanasia

Creation: Central Commission of Deontology of the Spanish Medical Association.
source : Comisión Central de Deontología de la Organización Médica Colegial Española.
language original: Spanish.
Approval: General Assembly of 21-VI-1986.
Publication: Revista OMC 16, December 1991.
Copyright: No.
Checked on 16 May 2002.

Statement of the WTO Central Commission of Deontology on euthanasia

In articles and talk shows, the expressions "financial aid to die" or "death with dignity" are frequently used. Such expressions are confusing because, although they may appear acceptable, they often conceal attitudes contrary to medical ethics. Moreover, they tend to blur the line that should separate attendance medical care of the dying, which is one of the most important and noble professional duties of physicians, from euthanasia, which is the deliberate destruction of a human life, which, even if carried out at the request of the victim or out of pity for the person performing it, is still a crime that is deeply repugnant to the sincere medical vocation.

In accordance with Articles 28.1 and 28.2 of our Code of Medical Ethics and Deontology, physicians are obliged to fulfil their genuine role in assisting and caring for the dying of their patients by competent treatment of pain and distress. He or she should strive for the greatest possible material well-being; he or she should, depending on the circumstances, provide spiritual attendance and human comfort to the dying; he or she should also provide support to the dying person's relatives. The physician also dignifies death and financial aid when he refrains from painful and unjustified treatments and when he suspends them because they are no longer useful.

But the physician would be betraying his vocation as a healer and protector of human life if he were to kill a sick person or assist in his voluntary suicide. A physician can never deliberately cause death: that is not what medicine is for. Even if a law were to permit it, a physician may never use the power and prerogatives that society has granted him or her to carry out a capital punishment ordered by a court of law or to end the life of a sick person, even if requested to do so by the sick person, or by his or her family, or by a hospital care provider committee .

A physician is guilty of a serious breach of ethics if he or she refuses to provide a dying person with competent medical care attendance and, above all, if he or she arrogates to himself or herself the unbridled power to voluntarily destroy a human life.