Category: Canada

Conscience rights protection amendments voted down

Catholic Register

Michael Swan

The majority Liberal government at Queen’s Park has crushed an opposition attempt to incorporate conscience protections for doctors in its legislation on assisted suicide.

The government majority on the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs voted down two versions of a Progressive Conservative amendment to Bill-84 that would have removed the threat of license suspensions and other disciplinary actions against doctors who refuse to make an “effective referral” for medical assistance in dying (MAID).

New Democratic Party representatives on the committee abstained on the issue. . . [Full text]

 

Amendments to protect conscience rights on the table

The Catholic Register

Michael Swan

Amendments to a government bill have been forward that would protect Ontario’s doctors and nurses who, for reasons of conscience, cannot refer for medical assistance in dying (MAID).

Conscience rights for doctors are coming up for a vote at Queen’s Park as amendments to Bill-84 which smooths the way for voluntary euthanasia makes its way through committee towards its final reading in the legislature.

Progressive Conservative health critic Jeff Yurek has put forward two versions of an amendment that would protect doctors and nurses who will not refer for MAID. The Yurek amendments protect medical professionals both from civil liability and from disciplinary action by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. . . [Full text]

 

Ontario’s euthanasia bill – no physician conscience rights

Toronto Sun

Dr. Mark D’Souza

Bill 84 is the Ontario government’s proposed legislation designed to implement Ottawa’s law on medically assisted dying.

It ignores the conscience rights of doctors like myself, who oppose euthanasia on ethical grounds and, in its current form, will decrease public access to palliative care.

In 2015, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario changed its human rights policy to say doctors who oppose euthanasia must refer their patients who want to be considered for it to another doctor to carry out.

Doctors like myself argue this provision — known as effective referral — involves us in the euthanasia process against our will. . . [Full text]

 

Dying with dignity can’t be forced on doctors — or hospitals

Coercion is a solution in search of a problem, a dead end when we have pathways to get people where they want to go.

Toronto Star

Martin Regg Cohn

Unsurprisingly in a matter of life and death, a war of words is at play: Medical suicide versus death with dignity.

Lowering the temperature, the authorities have settled on a more antiseptic acronym: MAID, or Medical Assistance in Dying.

There is no anodyne phrase, no easy right or wrong when both sides believe themselves to be on side of the angels. Or view the other side as being angels of death. . . [Full text]

 

Ontario’s legislators under ‘tremendous pressure’ to amend Bill-84

The Catholic Register

Michael Swan

With more than 22,000 emails and letters in their in-boxes, Ontario legislators have rarely been under as much pressure to amend a bill as they have been over conscience rights for doctors in Bill-84.

In response, Ontario Health Minister Dr. Eric Hoskins has promised to have a “care co-ordination service” up and running as early as May. . .

However, Hoskins and the Liberals have so far avoided saying they would override the policy of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario which requires doctors to refer for medically assisted death even against their moral, religious and ethical convictions. . . [Full text]