AMA Wins Victory Over Article on Mercy Killing

A judge on Friday quashed a subpoena in which a prosecutor sought to force a prominent medical journal to reveal the name of a doctor who wrote an anonymous first-person account of a mercy killing.

“We’re very pleased with the decision. We think it vindicates the decision to publish it,” said Kirk Johnson, counsel for the Chicago-based American Medical Assn., which publishes the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

“We continue to believe that the debate over euthanasia--which we oppose--will help in determining the proper treatment of the terminally ill,” he said.

Terry Levin, a spokesman for Cook County State’s Atty. Richard M. Daley, said he would have no immediate comment.

Chief Cook County Circuit Judge Richard Fitzgerald ruled that the state’s attorney’s office failed to prove that a crime was committed and had not exhausted all other avenues to obtain the information, as required by the state’s free-press law.

Question of Public Interest

Fitzgerald also said the state’s attorney had not demonstrated that the information being sought was essential to the public interest, another requirement of the Illinois Reporters’ Privilege Act.

The article, “It’s Over, Debbie,” was published in the Jan. 8 edition of the journal in its regular “A Piece of My Mind” column.

In the article, a doctor described injecting a lethal dose of morphine into a woman dying of ovarian cancer. He wrote that he did not know the patient but was asked to check on her and was moved by her plea: “Let’s get this over with.”

AMA officials said they did not verify the account but believed that it was based on fact. They said the author had requested that his name be withheld. The essay did not indicate where the doctor lived or where the incident occurred.

The state’s attorney’s office served the subpoena in mid-February, and AMA attorneys moved to quash it the next week.

Says Backing Is Unanimous

Dr. George Lundberg, editor of the 105-year-old journal, said he received unanimous support from the AMA board on his decision to run the article.

Lundberg has said he believed the essay describes an actual event but noted: “The account does have enough vagueness to welcome critical analysis as to whether it happened, or happened in this way.

“Whether the case is valid or not is irrelevant as long as the discussion is purposeful or educational for the people involved.”