Category: Procedures & Services

Health website ‘not sinister’

 Marlborough Express

Heather Simpson

An online database listing health professionals who are reportedly opposed to prescribing contraception or abortions is not sinister, the chief executive of Marlborough Primary Health Organisation says.

The My Decision website launched on Sunday lists 28 doctors, nurses, pharmacies and counsellors who object for moral or religious reasons to contraception or abortions .

Former Wairau Community Clinic GP Joseph Lee is on the list. Dr Lee, a devout Catholic, angered pro-choice campaigners when it was revealed last year he had refused to prescribe the contraceptive pill to a 23-year-old woman.

PHO boss Beth Tester said Dr. Lee no longer worked in Marlborough.

She did not mind the database. “It is not that sinister. Any doctor in Marlborough that doesn’t prescribe oral contraceptives has a notice saying so in their practice. This website database is no different.” [Full text]

 

Conscience should guide doctors at end of life

Canadian Medical Association Journal

Laura Eggertson

All doctors have the right to follow their conscience when deciding whether to assist dying patients physically or to provide them with the means to end their lives  –  within the bounds of legislation, delegates to the Canadian Medical Association’s annual meeting have voted.

As Canada considers changing its laws concerning assisted death, Canada’s doctors considered their stance on the second day of the Canadian Medical Association’s (CMA) 147th annual meeting in Ottawa. In the end, they voted 91% in favour of allowing individual physicians to follow their conscience in deciding whether or not to provide assistance. . . [Full Text]

Doctors vote to ‘follow their conscience’ if assisted suicide becomes legal

Toronto Sun

Jessica Hume

OTTAWA  –  In what appears to be a softening on the issue from Canada’s doctors, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) voted Tuesday to allow doctors to follow their conscience if and when assisted suicide becomes legal in Canada.

Previously, the CMA had opposed the idea of medically assisted euthanasia.

But with recent end-of-life legislation in Quebec, as well as two related bills put forward by Steven Fletcher, a Conservative MP who was paralyzed after a car accident in 1996, Canadians’ views — as well as the country’s laws — could be changing. . . [Full Text]

 

Canadian Medical Association softens stand on assisted suicide

Globe and Mail

André Picard

The Canadian Medical Association, which has a long-standing policy saying doctors should not participate in euthanasia or assisted suicide, is substantially softening its stance.

Delegates to the organization’s general council decided Tuesday that the CMA now “supports the right of all physicians, within the bounds of existing legislation, to follow their conscience when deciding whether to provide medical aid in dying.”

The carefully crafted position is an acknowledgment that, while assisting death is still a crime in Canada, the attitudes of Canadians, including those of physicians, are changing quickly, and so is the law.

While the group’s official policy has not changed, “it’s only a matter of time,” said Louis Francescutti, outgoing president of the CMA. Dr. Francescutti said the “conscience” resolution, which was adopted by an overwhelming 91 per cent of delegates, means that the CMA supports a doctor’s right to refuse to hasten the death of a terminally ill patient, but it will also support a doctor’s right to hasten death if the law allows.[Full text]

 

Abortion group targets pro-life doctors, nurses with new website: New Zealand

 Lifesite News

Michelle Kaufman

Pro-life health practitioners and crisis pregnancy centres in New Zealand are the target of a new website designed to intimidate those who choose not to refer for abortion or prescribe contraception.

The website, My Decision, is created by the Abortion Law Reform Association of New Zealand (ALRANZ).

The site lists health practitioners and crisis pregnancy centres which they believe women should avoid.  The incomplete list includes the names of individuals or organizations, the region and town, and whether they are a doctor, nurse or other provider.

Women are asked to submit their stories of “hostile or unhelpful health professionals.”  The stories are non-identifying and can be edited for length or clarity.  At the time of writing only two stories had been posted. [Full text]