COMMENTS AND RESPONSES Physician-Assisted Suicide TO THE EDITOR: Most of the American College of Physicians– American Society of Internal Medicine (ACP–ASIM) position paper

on physician-assisted suicide (1), which “concludes that physician-assisted suicide should be legally prohibited, ” is thoughtfully written and reflects the compassion of the authors and of the members of the ACP–ASIM Ethics and Human Rights Committee. Their support for measures to improve palliative care and their acknowledgment that “some aspects of suffering [sometimes] cannot be satisfactorily controlled ” are commendable. Yet their conclusion seems based more on arbitrary assertions than on thoughtfulness and compassion. The authors do not explain why the alleviation of any aspect of unbearable suffering should be “beyond the legitimate scope of med-ical care. ” As they themselves acknowledge, many physicians think otherwise and support the legalization of physician-assisted suicide. Legalized physician-assisted suicide does not need to divert “at-tention from the real issues in the care of the dying. ” In fact, there is good reason to believe that care of terminally ill patients in Orego