Category: Commentary

The doctors’ dilemma

National Post (Editorial)

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario recently voted to require doctors who refuse to provide certain services for reasons of conscience to provide referrals to doctors who will.

The new policy, enacted over the objections of the Ontario Medical Association, is a marked departure from the old. It paints medicine as a battlefield, with equal and opposite freedoms repeatedly colliding. Thus the college graciously agrees to limit physicians’ freedom of conscience in order to safeguard patients’ right of access.

The problem is that “right of access” is a college creation, while freedom of conscience is enshrined in the Charter of Rights. Doctors make informed decisions about treatment constantly. If they did not refuse to prescribe some treatments and suggest others, they would not be professionals. A patient storming into an office demanding amputation to treat a broken arm does not have “right of access.” . . . [Full text]

Trampled rights

Catholic Register (Editorial)

Requiring doctors to remain pillars of integrity while chipping at their moral underpinning is an odious contradiction. Yet that is what the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario proposes with a draconian new policy that tramples on conscience and religious rights.

The provincial regulatory body disregarded the majority view of 16,000 public submissions, dismissed the opinion of the Ontario Medical Association and the American Medical Association, and rejected the policy of the Canadian Medical Association when it voted 21-3 to force doctors to refer patients who seek treatments that their own doctor won’t provide due to moral or religious convictions. . . [Full text]

In the assisted-dying debate, where’s the compassion for doctors?

Edmonton Journal (Editorial)

What happens when those we trust most with human life are suddenly in charge of death?

Earlier this month, the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada, ruling against a family who wanted their mother’s care home to stop spoon-feeding her.

It’s difficult to fault either party.

Margaret Bentley, 83, neither speaks nor recognizes her relatives, and her family is certain the former dementia-ward nurse, now in the late stages of Alzheimer’s disease herself, would not want her life to continue in her current state.

A living will written by Bentley in 1991 outlined as much in no uncertain terms: “If at such a time the situation should arise that there is no reasonable expectation of my recovery from extreme physical or mental disability, I direct that I be allowed to die and not be kept alive by artificial means or ‘heroic measures.’ ”

But Bentley’s health-care workers refused to deliberately withhold food. They argued that by opening her lips to receive food when touched with a spoon, Bentley was consenting to being fed, and thus to being kept alive. The courts agreed. . . [Full text]

Wake up to the war on Catholic doctors

From midwifery to geriatrics, Catholics are being driven out of vast areas of the medical profession. We need to fight back now.

Catholic Herald (UK)

John Duddington

Imagine you are a Catholic who has just finished general medical training and is now seeking experience in the field of obstetrics and gynaecology.

At the interview for a training post you are not asked “Are you a Catholic?” That would be discrimination on grounds of religion. Instead, you are asked: “Are there any procedures that you would not be able to do?” You answer: “Yes. Abortion.”

Shortly afterwards, you hear you haven’t been chosen for the position. The letter doesn’t mention your conscientious objection to abortion. That is the reason for your rejection, but the letter covers that up by saying the job was given to a “better” candidate. This actually means “more suitable”, as the candidate will be willing to perform the abortions that the post demands. You will now have to change specialties.

Evidence is naturally anecdotal, but my research suggests that virtually all Catholic obstetricians and gynaecologists in Britain have trained abroad and it is virtually impossible not only for Catholics but also for others with strong religious convictions to train here in these areas. . . [Full Text]

Giving doctors a choice on assisted suicide

National Post

The following is an open letter written by medical professionals to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario.

Should Ontario’s doctors be forced to violate their consciences? On Feb. 6, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the Criminal Code provisions against euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. Concurrently, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) is proposing to oblige physicians, at the risk of professional discipline, to refer patients for procedures that a physician has refused for reasons of conscience, to a willing physician or agency established for such referrals.

This is a major shift in policy for the CPSO. Aside from Quebec, this position is not held by any other medical regulatory college in Canada and is inconsistent with the position of the Canadian Medical Association, the American Medical Association and similar bodies in Commonwealth countries. . . [Full Text]