TY - JOUR T1 - ONcologists' practice of euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide AU - MacDonald R Y1 - 1999/03/10 N1 - 10-1001/pubs.JAMA-ISSN-0098-7484-281-10-jac90000 JO - JAMA SP - 897 EP - 899 VL - 281 IS - 10 N2 - To the Editor: Dr Emanuel and colleagues1 report that a "minority of oncologists experience substantial problems from their actions. In almost a quarter of cases, physicians regretted performing euthanasia or PAS after the incident and in almost 1 in 6 cases, physicians experienced emotional distress." Perhaps the authors have personal philosophies preventing reporting the obvious—more than 75% of the respondents did not regret helping a patient die, and more than 83% experienced no emotional distress. It was admitted that "the majority of oncologists would perform euthanasia and PAS again in a similar case and received comfort from having helped a patient." Having assisted numerous terminally ill patients, many with cancer, to hasten death, I can agree with that latter statement. SN - 0098-7484 M3 - doi: 10-1001/pubs.JAMA-ISSN-0098-7484-281-10-jac90000 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10-1001/pubs.JAMA-ISSN-0098-7484-281-10-jac90000 ER -