Læknablaðið - 15.11.2007, Side 33

UMRÆÐUR O G FRÉTTIR
ALÞJÓÐAFÉLG LÆKNA
íslendingar áfundi WMA í KaupmannahöfnJ.v.: Elín Ásta Hallgrímsson, Margrét Gunnarsdóttir, Birna Jónsdóttir, Gunnar Ármannsson, Jón Snædal, Guðrún
Karlsdottir, Sigurbjorn Svemsson ogjóhann Björgvin Rúnarsson - ásamt Kgosi Letlape frá Suður-Afríku.
í ræðu sinni sem nýr forseti á þá staðreynd að
Alheimersjúkdómurinn fer nú sem eldur í sinu
um Afríku og Asíulönd sem mörg hver höfðu
ekki meldað hann sem heilsufarsvandamál,
en hér má lesa ávarp hans: www.wma.net/e
Siðfræði er og verður meginviðfangsefni Jóns
einsog fram kemur hér:
In his inaugural Presidential address at the WMA's
annual General Assembly in Copenhagen, Dr Snaedal,
a geriatrician from Iceland, said that when the WMA
last year changed one word in its International Code
of Medical Ethics from ,a physician shall always bear
in mind the obligation to preserve human life' to ,a
physician shall always bear in mind the obligation to
respect human life', it reflected a fundamental change in
physicians' way of thinking of their duties.
,Our abilities to treat our fellow human beings have
vastly increased as we are now able to preserve life for a
long time even if this life is without any obvious quality.
There is a saying that life is a disease with 100 per cent
mortality, a saying that medicalizes life itself. We have
to acknowledge the fact that death is inevitable and that
in its last phases it is of more value to the person to treat
the symptoms rather than the disease. In this phase our
obligation is thus to respect the patient rather than to
preserve his life.'
Jon Snædal meðfjölskyldu sinni, dætrunum Bertu Andreu til vinstri, Guðrúnu Katrínu með
barnabarnið Snorra Nils ífanginu og eiginkonunni Guðrúnu Karlsdóttur.
LÆKNAblaðið 2007/93 765