Category: Law

Ban on assisted dying at St. Martha’s hospital should end, says law prof

Religious hospital in Antigonish, N.S., has agreement with province allowing it to forego MAID provision

CBC News

Frances Willick

Nova Scotia’s only Catholic hospital is at risk of being found in violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and human rights legislation by refusing to provide medical assistance in dying, a Halifax law professor says.

St. Martha’s Regional Hospital in Antigonish, N.S., is a publicly funded health-care facility. But due to its religious ties, staff are not permitted to provide MAID. . . [Full text]

Supreme Court opines on limitations of GPs’ freedom of conscience

International Law Office

Lise Gran, Ole Kristian Olseby

The Supreme Court recently deemed that a municipality’s termination of its agreement with a general practitioner (GP) after she refused to insert an intrauterine device (IUD) for a patient for reasons of conscience relating to her religion was invalid.

Legal background

The criterion for terminating an agreement with a GP is the same as that for terminating an employment agreement under Norwegian law (ie, it must be objectively justified). . . [Full text]

Hospital, care-home policies must change so more people can access medical assistance in dying

The Province

Alex Muir

. . . an individual who is suffering intolerably and whose death is reasonably foreseeable has a constitutional right to medical assistance in dying (MAiD) if certain other criteria are met. . .

. . . most people in Vancouver’s West End will end up at St. Paul’s, a hospital run by Catholic-based Providence Health, which doesn’t allow MAiD to be performed in any of its facilities. Anyone wanting to access MAiD once at St. Paul’s must be transferred to Vancouver General Hospital or another willing facility. . .

. . . end the practice of forced transfers by insisting that all taxpayer-funded facilities, including Providence facilities, provide MAiD on site. . .[Full text]

Maternity hospital governance ‘will be resolved when it’s resolved’ – Taoiseach

Varadkar says law enacted by Oireachtas will apply, ‘not Canon or any other law’

The Irish Times

Marie O’Halloran, Martin Wall

The controversy over the governance and ownership of the new national maternity hospital when it moves from Dublin’s Holles Street to a site at the St Vincent’s hospital campus “will be resolved when it is resolved”, the Taoiseach has said.

Leo Varadkar told the Dáil that Minister for Health Simon Harris was still engaging with the existing National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street and the St Vincent’s Hospital Group to get it right “but we are confident that we can get there”. . . [Full text]

Bishop urges professionals to resist abortion laws

The Irish Independent

Susan Gately

A leading bishop has called on doctors, nurses, teachers and pharmaceutical workers to “resist” the new abortion regime.

He urged such professionals to “stick together” in their resistance to the new law.

Bishop Kevin Doran said the Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy Bill, which is before the Seanad this week, has no moral force and must be resisted. “Catholics have no obligation whatsoever to obey this law,” he told the Irish Independent. . . [Full text]