Where We Stand
Section: Hospice / End of Life Care / Death & Dying
Subsection: Palliative Care

Palliative Care

OMA has reviewed the literature and the opinions and recommendations of other medical organizations on the most effective contemporary techniques of the management of pain, suffering and other aspects of the end-of-life experience among terminally ill patients and the OMA continues to support an open and informed dialogue between physicians and their patients about end-of-life decisions, and an ability to continue to provide comfort, care and pain control.
Adopted at the annual House of Delegates, 1994.
Revised at the annual House of Delegates, 2011.


OMA has established the following policies regarding the role of palliative care at the end of life:
  1. Promote and promulgate the goal of good, competent and compassionate palliative care at the end of life among Oregon physicians;
  2. Support the availability of hospice and related palliative care for all Oregonians;
  3. Support and contribute to a consortium of agencies to further the goals of competent, compassionate care of the terminally ill, including education of physicians, other health care professionals and the community, development of guidelines, and networking;
  4. Develop a resource guide and annotated bibliography for physician use, which draws on rather than duplicates the excellent references already available;
  5. Recognize the possibility of public policy permitting physician-assisted suicide as an option for the terminally ill, but work to have the discussion occur only in the context of hospice and/or appropriate palliative care to ensure the best possible care;
  6. Work to protect the role of the physician in providing palliative care and the confidentiality of patient-physician relationships in this process; and
  7. That OMA position itself as a champion of expert, comprehensive and readily available palliative care to patients at the end of life, whether in the home, hospital, nursing home or critical care unit, encouraging the use of hospice services whenever possible. (Adopted at the annual House of Delegates, 1995; reaffirmed at the interim House of Delegates, 2005) 
  8. That the Oregon Medical Association strongly recommends that physicians discuss Advanced Directives with their patients. (Adopted at the interim House of Delegates, 2005)

OMA supports and advocates for compassionate and competent palliative care at the end of life and, furthermore, acknowledges that medical efforts to eliminate irreversible and extreme pain and suffering at the end of life are an appropriate medical response that may result in hastening the patient’s death. OMA acknowledges the patient’s legitimate right to autonomy at the end of life, but does not accept the proposition that death with dignity may only be achieved through physician-assisted suicide.
Adopted at the annual House of Delegates, 1997.
Reaffirmed at the annual House of Delegates, 2011.

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