FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE/November 20, 1996 CONTACT: Sara Foer [202-651-7023] ANA Joins Health Care Groups in Amicus Brief for Supreme Court Case on Assisted SuicideWASHINGTON, DC -- The American Nurses Association (ANA) joined more than 30 health care groups in signing an amicus curiae ("friend of the court") brief opposing physician-assisted suicide. The brief was submitted November 12 by the American Medical Association (AMA) to the United States Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has accepted two cases, from the ninth and second U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals, both of which raise the question of whether there exists a constitutional right to physician-assisted suicide.ANA worked with the AMA in developing the brief, ensuring that ANA's position on this issue was included. The document represents a united front of health care professionals primarily involved with patients facing death -- physicians and nurses. Other nursing groups that signed on include the American Association of Critical Care Nurses, the Hospice Nurses Association, and the Oncology Nursing Society. The signatories of the brief believe that the lower court was wrong in taking the unprecedented step of announcing a right to control the timing and manner of one's death through the use of physician-assisted suicide. "Nurses have always been leaders and advocates for the delivery of dignified and humane end-of-life care," said ANA President Beverly L. Malone, PhD, RN, FAAN. "Nursing care is directed at managing the pain of the last stages of life and improving the care provided to dying persons and their families. We are encouraged that so many prominent health care organizations have come together in opposition to assisted suicide." ANA asserts that nurses should not participate in assisted suicide, as such acts violate the Code for Nurses with Interpretive Statements and the ethical traditions of the profession. ANA's position statement acknowledges that there are many ethically justified end-of-life decisions and states that "nurses, individually and collectively, have an obligation to provide comprehensive and compassionate end-of-life care which includes the promotion of comfort and the relief of pain, and at times, foregoing life-sustaining treatments." ANA's position on assisted suicide was developed by ANA's Center for Ethics and Human Rights and the Center's Task Force on the Nurse's Role in End-of-Life Decisions in December 1994. The ANA created the Center for Ethics and Human Rights in 1990 to assist nurses and assure that ethics and human rights are addressed in health care. Through education, outreach, clearinghouse services, consultation, and policy development, the Center assists state nurses associations, individual nurses, nurse administrators, educators, journal editors, lawyers, human rights organizations, and other health care professionals. Reporters may obtain copies of the brief from ANA's Communications Department by calling 202-651-7018.
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