Health workers in the US are being forced to go into a battle to protect the right of their patients to die.
The US Senate has passed a bill which would allow doctors and nurses to end life-saving treatment for patients with terminal illnesses, including cancer, and the bill will now head to President Donald Trump for his signature.
It has been supported by all of the major US medical groups and has received unanimous support in the House.
But in a sign of how far the debate has gone, there is now growing resistance within the profession to the bill’s proposed ban on end-of-life care.
For doctors, the bill would create an entirely new classification of medical emergencies, a new level of risk for them to be able to end treatment, and require them to carry out some of the most advanced treatments, such as advanced cryopreservation.
A bill that would allow a doctor to end an operation is now before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where it is facing a barrage of criticisms from Republicans and the American Medical Association (AMA).
The AMA has already called for the bill to be blocked.
“End-of and terminal life are two different medical conditions,” said AMA president Dr Nancy-Ann DeMaria in a statement.
“Doctors must be allowed to make medical decisions that are in the best interest of their patient and patients need access to quality, compassionate care.”
Dr DeMaria added that she believed it would be a mistake to give up the ability to end the lives of patients in some circumstances.
She said: “End-stage cancer is an extremely challenging and life-threatening condition, and it is critically important for doctors to continue to have access to appropriate treatment options and care for their patients.”
However, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), a leading US medical group, has called on Congress to allow the use of medical care in end-stage disease to continue.
And the American Heart Association has also voiced concerns about the bill, calling it an “unnecessary intrusion” that would “limit the availability of medically necessary care”.
“It is our view that end- of-life health care should not be restricted to those in the most challenging stages of their illness, and that patients should have the ability and freedom to choose the treatment that is best for them,” the AMA said in a press release.
Some doctors, however, argue that end stage care should be left to the individual.
In a way, we’re all just in this world. “
But I also think that it is really difficult to have an objective analysis of the risk and benefit of different treatments and different approaches.
In a way, we’re all just in this world.
It’s really a subjective thing.”He added: “[I]f you are an individual in the end- stage stage of your illness and you are in that state of being a patient, and you have a choice to continue life, you can do that.”
The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the US Department, which is responsible for the safety and security of healthcare facilities, said the bill was a commonsense response to the increasing number of end stage patients.
“We support the right for all Americans to end their own lives, and will work to protect patients’ access to care,” the agency said in an email.
Dr Duesburg added: “The US has had an increasing number, in recent years, of people dying of their own disease and they deserve access to a dignified, life-giving death.”
That’s what the bill does, it protects those who have been waiting for a dignifying death, and protects patients who have had the same wish but have been unable to achieve it.
“Dr De Maria said that while there had been a “massive increase” in end stage disease in the past few decades, it was only the third time since 1900 that a bill had been introduced to prevent the end of life.
So while the US is the first country in the world to allow doctors to end patient lives, it is not the first in the developed world to pass laws to protect those who want to end a life.
A bill in France was introduced in 2014 to ban the euthanasia of patients with end stage diseases, and in the UK a similar bill has passed the House of Commons.
In the UK, euthanasia was legalised in 2013.
However, as Dr Duesburger noted, it will take more than a few votes in Parliament to make this change to law.
He said:”The law needs to be challenged, and there needs to need to be debate in Parliament about whether or not it’s right to allow someone to take their own life.”
But the issue is