Category: Euthanasia
Why a ‘conscience clause’ is essential in assisted suicide legislation
Pharmacists must be allowed to opt out of dispensing lethal prescriptions if assisted suicide is legalised, and this right should be protected in law, says Aileen Bryson, policy and practice lead at Royal Pharmaceutical Society Scotland.
The Pharmaceutical Joural
Assisted suicide is a sensitive and emotional subject, and if it were legalised many pharmacists would play important roles in the process – including requests to dispense prescriptions that would end lives.
So when legislation to allow assisted suicide was proposed in both Scottish and Westminster Parliaments in 2012, the national pharmacy boards of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society (RPS) developed a policy to address the challenges and issues the profession might encounter.
RPS policy neither supports nor opposes the Bills. But we wanted to ensure politicians understood that the pharmacist’s role reaches far beyond supply, and that pharmacists would need to work in partnership with medical colleagues. Moreover, as healthcare professionals, the concept of dispensing a prescription that would end someone’s life is quite outside the realm of routine pharmacy practice and raises many ethical and practical questions. . . [Full Text]
Physician-assisted suicide is a non-issue for most MDs
CanadianHealthcareNetwork.ca
For most doctors, physician-assisted suicide will not change almost anything in day-to-day practice. It will happen away from the mainstream of care, available but not obvious. Doctors will want reassurance that neither patients nor caregivers get coerced but beyond that, most physicians will not get passionate either way.
Doctors usually avoid social activism. As a group, they support social movements but rarely create movements of their own.
Doctors agree on one moral absolute: Thou shalt not express a moral opinion about the behaviours, beliefs or decisions of thy patient. Everyone is a potential patient. Ergo, doctors should not express opinions about anyone’s choice. Society expects this—demands this—of its doctors. Modern medical trainees learn objectivity before all else. . . [Full Text]
Saskatoon doctor worried about Supreme Court assisted suicide ruling
Global News
SASKATOON – One Saskatoon doctor is worried about the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling last week that opens the door to physician assisted suicide. Dr. Philip Fitzpatrick, a family doctor and ER physician, says it flies in the face of doctors’ commitment not to cause harm to patients.
“This is a bit of a red line because as physicians we’re not supposed to be partaking in anything that might harm our patients,” he told Global News. “Definitely for me participating in an assisted suicide would be harming my patient – even a referral for that would make me culpable for that.” [Full text]
Supreme Court of Canada orders legalization of physician assisted suicide – AND euthanasia
Physicians unwilling to kill already face demands that they find someone who will
In a 9-0 ruling the Supreme Court of Canada struck down two sections of Canada’s Criminal Code “insofar as they prohibit physician-assisted death” in circumstances outlined by the Court. It appears that most or all of the major media outlets understood this to mean that the Court had legalized physician assisted suicide.
In fact, the Court has authorized physicians not only to help eligible patients commit suicide, but to kill them – whether or not they are capable of suicide. The ruling permits both physician assisted suicide and physician administered euthanasia in the case of competent adults who have clearly consented to being killed, and who have a grievous irremediable medical condition “including an illness, disease or disability” that causes “enduring suffering that is intolerable to the individual.”
The Court limited its ruling to the facts of the Carter case, but offered no opinion “on other situations” where physicians might be asked to kill patients or help them commit suicide. It is highly likely that the parameters set by the Court in Carter will be expanded in federal or provincial laws or in later litigation. It would certainly be a serious mistake to presume that the goalposts set in Carter will not be moved.
Even where euthanasia and assisted suicide are legal, most physicians are unwilling to do what the Supreme Court of Canada now expects Canadian physicians to do: lethally inject patients and write prescriptions for lethal medications.
However, acknowledging the joint intervention of the Protection of Conscience Project, Catholic Civil Rights League and Faith and Freedom Alliance and submissions by others, including the Canadian Medical Association, the Court stated: “In our view, nothing in the declaration of invalidity which we propose to issue would compel physicians to provide assistance in dying.”
The judges noted that “a physician’s decision to participate in assisted dying is a matter of conscience and, in some cases, of religious belief,” and that “the Charter rights of patients and physicians will need to be reconciled.”
Unfortunately, euthanasia activists understand “reconciliation” to mean that physicians unwilling to kill patients or help them kill themselves should be forced to refer them to a colleague willing to do so. This is the view of Dr. James Downar, a Toronto palliative care physician, who told the Canadian Medical Association Journal that it is critical to ensure all Canadians have access to “physician assisted dying.”
Commenting on the remarks attributed to Dr. Downar, Protection of Conscience Project Administrator Sean Murphy noted that many other palliative care physicians were concerned about ensuring access to palliative care, not finding physicians willing to kill patients.
“They certainly aren’t inclined to force colleagues to participate in assisted suicide and euthanasia,” he said. “Quite the contrary: many would refuse to direct patients to physicians willing to kill them or help them commit suicide.”
“Carter is not the last word on the euthanasia, assisted suicide and freedom of conscience,” he added, “but only the first of many to come.”
For details, see Supreme Court of Canada orders legalization of physician assisted suicide – AND euthanasia