Calif. Medical Association drops opposition to assisted death [SunHerald.com]

The California Medical Association has become the first state medical association in the nation to drop opposition to what has long been known as “physician-assisted suicide,” it said, acknowledging a shift in doctor and patient attitudes about end-of-life and aid-in-dying options.

The move comes as the doctors organization removed its opposition Wednesday to a controversial aid-in-dying bill that would allow terminally ill Californians to end their lives with doctor-prescribed drugs.

The California Medical Association recently changed its internal policies so that it is neutral on the issue, deleting language that referred to aid-in-dying as “physician-assisted suicide.”The group has long opposed aid-in-dying on grounds that it violates doctors’ ethical and moral obligations to provide the best treatment possible.