The American Medical Association does not represent the views, opinions or ethical standards of all physicians in the U.S. It does not even fully represent those of its members.
When the Tribune reported (Page 1, Dec. 5) that John Seward supervised “all of the activities of the 293,000-member AMA,” it should have made clear that he does not supervise its members in any of their daily activities, nor do the great majority of the members have anything to do with the Sunbeam deal. Indeed, many members join simply to receive the Journal of the American Medical Association, other newsletters and to keep informed about conferences.
Many AMA members would have a hard time explaining the association’s stands on such pressing issues as abortion (the AMA takes no stand against the 1.2 million elective abortions procured yearly in the U.S.) or euthanasia (which the AMA has strongly opposed.) There are those of us in the medical field who refuse to join the AMA for that reason and because of conundrums such as the Sunbeam debacle. The AMA clearly does not speak for our ethical standards and should not be represented as doing so.
