The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reports that the government of Quebec will introduce legislation to legalize physician assisted suicide in the province between 7 and 14 June, 2013. The draft bill is expected to assert that physician assisted suicide is a form of health care, and thus (under Canada’s constitutional division of powers) subject to provincial regulation, not the Criminal Code, a federal law that prohibits the procedures. Depending upon the wording of the bill, the proposed legislation could include euthanasia by physicians. Dr. Paul Saba of Physicians for Social Justice, a group that opposes the legislation, states that he will refuse to assist or refer any patient who asks for assisted suicide or euthanasia, regardless of the law or the policies of the Collège des médecins du Québec (Quebec College of Physicians), the state regulator of the practice of medicine. [CBC]
Category: Ethics
Neil Mitchell with Dr Mark Hobart over his refusal to refer a couple for an abortion
Discrimination at the doctor’s office
New England Journal of Medicine
Perspective
Doctors dedicate themselves to helping others. But how selective can they be in deciding whom to help? Recent years have seen some highly publicized examples of doctors who reject patients not because of time constraints or limited expertise but on far more questionable grounds, including the patient’s sexual orientation, parents’ unwillingness to vaccinate (in surveys, as many as 30% of pediatricians say they have asked families to leave their practice for this reason), and most recently, the patient’s weight. [Read more . . .]
Irish psychiatrists reject proposed part in assessment of women seeking abortion
About one third of Irish psychiatrists who treat adults have signed a statement rejecting a draft government proposal that psychiatrists should assess women seeking who are threatening suicide. One of a group of psychiatrists involved in discussion with the Irish government told the Irish Independent that “there is no evidence that abortion is a treatment for suicidality in pregnancy and may in fact be harmful to women.” 113 of about 300 practitioners have signed a statement to that effect. [Irish Independent]
Nebraska psychologist opposes freedom of conscience
Dr. William Spaulding, a former president of the Nebraska Psychological Association, has criticized the proposed Health Care Freedom of Conscience Act because it does not force health care workers to refer for services or procedures to which they object for reasons of conscience. The bill requires an objector to disclose that moral or religious beliefs prevent him from providing treatment so that the patient can seek assistance elsewhere, but does not force them to assist patients to find someone willing to provide the contested service.
Spaulding claims that an objector may refuse to treat a distraught patient who is involved in homosexual activity or who has homosexual inclinations by saying, “I have a religious belief against you and you have a moral problem.”
He refuses a compromise by which patients are provided a general list of alternative practitioners without specific referral to someone willing to affirm and support homosexuality, asserting, “Compromising on prejudice is not a compromise.” [Star Herald]