REPLY
Publication of Papers on Assisted Suicide and Terminal Sedation
Frank Davidoff, MD
3 October 2000 | Volume 133 Issue 7 | Page 566
IN RESPONSE:
Because the papers written by the ACP–ASIM End-of-Life Care Consensus Panel were "received" rather than endorsed by the College, we made the editorial decision to publish them in the Academia and Clinic section of Annals rather than under the heading of "Position Paper." The latter section is generally reserved for papers that have been formally endorsed by established medical organizations. In fact, all of the papers in the End-of-Life Care series that preceded the paper by Quill and Byock (1) appeared in the Academia and Clinic section. Publication of that paper (1) under the heading of "Position Paper" was purely a technical mistake, and an unfortunate one, that occurred during journal production. We apologize for the error, and have published a correction notice (2). As pointed out by Sulmasy and colleagues, readers were unambiguously notified on the title page that the paper does not represent official ACP–ASIM policy; the correction notice also contains that information.
The papers from the Assisted Suicide Panel of the University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics, including the paper by Quill and colleagues on palliative treatments of last resort (3), were published in the Medicine and Public Issues section, which does not contain official positions. The source and status of the papers were clearly labeled. After considerable thought, we decided to let these papers speak for themselves rather than trying to accompany them with one or more editorials on the many other possible points of view on the subject—an almost endless task—in the same issue of the journal. Part of the purpose in publishing these papers was, however, to stimulate continuing debate outside these pages on this extraordinarily complex and difficult topic.
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Author and Article Information
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Editor (Davidoff)
1. Quill TE, Byock IR. Responding to intractable terminal suffering: the role of terminal sedation and voluntary refusal of food and fluids. ACP–ASIM End-of-Life Care Consensus Panel Ann Intern Med. 2000;132:408-14.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2. Correction: end-of-life care paper. Ann Intern Med. 2000; 132:1011. http://www.annals.org/issues/v132n12/full/200006200-00038.html.
3. Quill TE, Lee BC, Nunn S. Palliative treatments of last resort: choosing the least harmful alternative. University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics Assisted Suicide Consensus Panel Ann Intern Med. 2000;132:488-93.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
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