Category: Canada

Calgary doctor refuses to prescribe birth control due to personal beliefs

CTVNews.ca

Marlene Leung

A Calgary doctor who will not prescribe birth control because she says it goes against her personal beliefs has triggered outrage among patients.

Dr. Chantal Barry will not prescribe birth control pills due to her religious beliefs. When Barry is working as the lone walk-in physician at the Westglen Medical Centre in southwest Calgary, a sign is put up telling patients that they will not be able to get a prescription for contraception that day.

When Joan Chand’oiseau saw the sign, she was shocked and outraged by the policy, which she says is judgemental.

“It contains overt judgement of my choices and my reproductive health,” she told CTV Calgary. “I think that affects everyone in that clinic, regardless of whether or not they’re visiting that doctor.” . . . [Full text]

Should doctors have the right to refuse to treat a patient?

The Globe and Mail

Kelly Grant

Canada’s largest medical regulator is reviewing its policy on physicians and the human rights code, a document that wrestles with a thorny question: When can a doctor refuse to treat a patient on religious or moral grounds?

The review by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) is a regularly scheduled revisiting of the policy, which was last updated amid controversy in 2008.

But the checkup also comes a few months after word spread online and in the mainstream media of a form letter distributed by three Ottawa doctors who declined to prescribe birth control because of their “religious values,” a rare example of physicians openly refusing – in writing – to provide services for religious reasons.

In another case that surfaced this week, a Calgary woman posted to Facebook a picture of a sign on the door of a walk-in clinic that read: “Please be informed the physician on duty today will not prescribe the birth control pill,” although the sign did not explain why. . . [Full text]

Doctor on duty ‘will not prescribe the birth control pill,’ reads sign at Calgary walk-in clinic

National Post

Manisha Krishnan

CALGARY – A doctor at a Calgary walk-in clinic is refusing to prescribe birth control due to her personal beliefs.

Dr. Chantal Barry will not prescribe contraception, a receptionist at the Westglen Medical Centre confirmed. Patients looking for birth control are provided a list of other offices in the city that prescribe it.

Westglen only has one doctor available to walk-in patients at any given time, so a sign at the facility’s front desk reads, “The physician on duty today will not prescribe the birth control pill.”

“I was shocked and outraged,” said Joan Chand’oiseau, 45, who saw the sign while attending an appointment with her gynecologist Tuesday. Ms. Chand’oiseau immediately posted a photo of the sign on Facebook, prompting angry responses from several of her friends.

“I don’t think her belief system should have any part in my reproductive health,” she said.

Under the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta’s policy on Moral or Religious Beliefs Affecting Medical Care, doctors can refuse to provide medical services, but must ensure the patient is offered timely access to those services from another practitioner. . . [Full text]

Right-to-die already weighing on Quebec’s conscience

 New law has hospitals, doctors grappling with old fears, new moral burdens

Toronto Star

Allan Woods

MONTREAL—Quebec passed a landmark euthanasia law earlier this month meant to end the agony in the final days of a terminal patient’s life. But the legislation has lumped the province’s medical community with an existential burden it is only now confronting.

Doctors are weighing their consciences against their looming legal responsibilities to dying patients. It’s not entirely clear which one will win the day.

“I’ve been working in clinical ethics as a physician for 24 years and this is going to be one of our biggest challenges,” says Dr. Eugene Bereza, director of the centre for applied ethics at Montreal’s McGill University Health Centre.

The process that led to Bill 52, the so-called Medical Aid in Dying legislation, was wrenching enough in a society where the government, school and hospitals were a proxy for the Catholic Church not two generations ago. . . . [Full text]

West Island Palliative Care Residence clarifies care it offers following passage of Quebec’s end-of-life legislation

Hospice statement 5 June following passage of euthansia law in Quebec

Will continue to provide care and comfort to terminally ill but will NOT act to hasten natural process of death

For immediate release

KIRKLAND, Quebec – June 5, 2014 – In light of the passage today by the National Assembly of new Quebec end-of-life legislation, the West Island Palliative Care Residence wishes to clarify that the new legislation will not change in any way the services it provides to terminally ill patients.

The Residence will continue to act in the way it always has – to provide the best possible care and comfort, including symptom relief to the dying but without taking any actions that hasten the natural process of death.

The new Quebec legislation permits, under certain conditions, Quebec health institutions and health professionals to provide “medical aid in dying” – the administration of drugs or other actions to intentionally cause the death of a patient. The legislation also permits any health professional as well as “palliative care hospices,” of which the West Island Palliative Care Residence is one, the option to choose not to do so, provided patients are informed that this is the case.

The West Island Palliative Care Residence has chosen to exercise this option and to make no change to the type and methods of care it delivers, meaning it will not take actions that intentionally cause a patient’s death.

“The goal of good palliative care is never to hasten the end of life,” said Teresa Dellar, Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Residence. “We make the last days of life as comfortable and pain-free as possible so patients can live them in the best possible manner.” In fact, she noted, good palliative care from early on in a terminal illness has been shown in clinical studies to both extend patients’ lives and improve their quality of life.

“If we as a society are going to offer more choices to patients at the end of life, as this legislation does, then we must ensure one of those choices is ready access to high-quality palliative care in the patient’s community, as we offer at our Residence,” continued Ms. Dellar. “If quality palliative care is available, few will choose to end their lives prematurely. We can’t allow the premature ending of lives to become a substitute for our responsibility to provide compassionate care and symptom relief at the end of life.”

The West Island Palliative Care Residence will be changing its application forms and information for patients and families to comply with the new legislation and make it clear to them that the Residence will not provide the intentional end-of-life services now permitted.

About palliative care

Palliative care does not hasten death – as do euthanasia and assisted suicide – but ensures it is as comfortable, dignified and pain-free as possible. It is a conservative estimate that palliative care could be useful in more than half of Canadian deaths, or more than 125,000 patients per year. As proportionately fewer Canadians die suddenly or quickly from accidents or acute illnesses, more face end of life with chronic illnesses or diseases such as cancer that can extend over a relatively long period of time. Many dying patients end up in hospital ERs during the last weeks of life, an indicator of poor-quality end-of-life care and a very expensive and unsatisfactory alternative to palliative care.

About the West Island Palliative Care Residence

The West Island Palliative Care Residence is an independent, community-based, non-profit institution, accredited by the Quebec government to provide end-of-life palliative care services to residents of the West Island of Montreal. The Residence allows terminally ill patients to die in comfort and with dignity in a warm, home-like environment, close to their family, and in their community. It is not part of or affiliated with any hospital or health institution and services are provided without charge. The Residence has 23 beds in two pavilions, making it the largest freestanding palliative care residence in Canada. Since opening in 2002, the Residence has welcomed more than 2,500 patients in the final stages of ALS, multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular disease and cancer, as well as 10,000 of their family members. To learn more, visit ww.wipcr.ca

For more information:
Joanne Myers, Director of Development
Tel.: 514 693-1718, ext. 234
Mobile: 514 978-0793