Category: Law

Linking Healthcare Access to Conscience Freedoms, Christian Medical Association Hails Presidential Executive Order

News Release

Christian Medical Association

WASHINGTON, May 4, 2017 /Standard Newswire/ — Citing the link between patient access to healthcare and conscience freedom for health professionals, the 18,000-member Christian Medical Association (CMA, www.cmda.org) today expressed gratitude for President Trump’s executive order that begins to provide stronger protections against discrimination against individuals and organizations of faith.

“Protecting religious freedom means protecting the millions of individuals served by organizations and professionals who are motivated and guided by the tenets of their faith,” explained Dr. David Stevens, CEO of the 85-year-old nonpartisan organization of Christian doctors and students. “The faith that compels so many health professionals to minister to patients in underserved areas and populations is the same faith that compels us to practice according to moral and ethical guidelines. Conscience freedoms are the foundation of our service.

“When the government refuses to accommodate those faith principles, or–as we experienced in the previous administration’s contraceptives and transgender mandates–attempts to coerce people of faith to violate those principles, those who suffer include the poor, the marginalized and the vulnerable.”

Represented by Becket Law, the Christian Medical Association recently successfully challenged the Obama administration’s transgender mandate. Represented by Americans United for Life, CMA filed an amicus brief in the contraceptives mandate Supreme Court case, Zubik v. Burwell.

CMA also worked to help establish the nation’s first health professionals’ conscience protection rule, promulgated in 2008 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Obama administration subsequently gutted the conscience rule and also attempted to force faith-based organizations to participate in morally objectionable contraceptives such as Plan B and the morning-after pill.

“We are grateful for this executive order that begins to turn the tide back toward freedom of faith and speech, including political speech. Americans do not give up their First Amendment protections when they speak from the pulpit, counsel their patients or minister in a faith-based outreach to help the poor,” Dr. Stevens observed. “Threatening the First Amendment freedoms of any one group threatens the First Amendment freedoms of all of us, and protecting those freedoms protects us all.”

Contact: Margie Shealy, Christian Medical Association, 888-230-2637, 423-341-4254 mobile, margie.shealy@cmda.org

Conservative MPP Yurek keeps up fight for conscience rights with bill

The Catholic Register

Evan Boudreau

The Ontario Liberals’ rejection of amendments to its assisted suicide legislation leaves MPP Jeff Yurek “very disappointed” but not defeated as the Conservative prepares to introduce a private member’s bill to protect conscience rights for doctors and health care workers.

On May 18, the Conservative’s bill will be brought forward to the legislature for an evaluation of the pros and cons. While Yurek expects scrutiny similar to that which faced Bill 84 amendments, he’s still hopeful to garner support from the majority of his political peers.

But that will require the votes of Liberal MPPs, who Yurek hopes will be influenced by their conscience and not the will of party leaders. . . [Full text]

 

Physicians, conscience, and assisted dying

By requiring that physicians make referrals for assisted dying, Ontario is forcing them to leave medicine or abandon their ethical framework.

Policy Options

Deina Warren,* Derek Ross*

Of all the jurisdictions worldwide that permit some form of assisted suicide, Ontario stands alone in mandating that physicians participate in it. . . [C]ompelling physicians to participate in MAID results in the state deciding what everyone should believe; and second, it undermines physicians’ moral integrity, a foundational component of medical ethics and principled health care. . . [Full text]

MPP Yurek introduces private member’s bill to protect conscience rights

News Release

For immediate release

Jeff Yurek

QUEEN’S PARK – This morning Ontario PC Health Critic MPP Jeff Yurek (Elgin-Middlesex-London), introduced his private member’s bill that would amend the government’s medical assistance in dying (MAID) legislation to protect the conscience rights of health care providers.

Yurek’s bill, An Act to amend the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991 with respect to medical assistance in dying, will make participation in MAID voluntary. The amendments will allow health care professionals to refuse to directly or indirectly participate in MAID if it violates their conscience or religious beliefs, without facing discipline from their regulatory college.

“There are ways for the government to ensure access to MAID while not infringing on freedom of conscience,” stated Yurek. “Provinces such as Alberta have proposed a self-referral system that respects patient wishes while not infringing on freedom of conscience. These are basic rights we have in Canada that the Liberals are ignoring. Not only did they Liberals omit protection of conscience rights in their legislation, they voted against Ontario PC amendments that would have addressed this important issue.”

“Only the PCs have continued to stand beside our doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals.  They should under no circumstances should be forced to participate in medical assistance in dying. It is my hope that the Liberal members will support my Bill to protect the rights of health care professionals across our province.” concluded MPP Jeff Yurek

The bill will be debated on May 18, 2017.

CONTACT: Whitney McWilliam
P: 226-448-6741
E: whitney.mcwilliam@pc.ola.org

No conscience rights protection for health care providers

The Sachem
Reproduced with permission

Sam Oosterhoff

In March, I attended hearings for Bill 84, the Medical Assistance in Dying legislation put forward by the provincial Liberals.

I listened to doctors, nurses, ethicists, religious leaders and human rights advocates who had travelled from across Ontario to bring forward their concerns about this law. After the federal Liberal government legalized physician assisted suicide last year, they wanted to ensure there was adequate consultation in the provincial implementation.

Faced with the situation of legal physician assisted suicide, health professionals need clear and explicit conscience protection so that they will not be forced to take part and contradict their deeply held personal convictions.

Conscience rights are fundamental human rights which are clearly protected in our country under Section 2(a) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Yet Bill 84 offers no protection for the conscience rights of health professionals.
Since Bill 84 was introduced last December, my office has been flooded with phone calls, emails, and visits from constituents who are concerned with the lack of conscience protections in the bill.

Some doctors say that they would have to leave the practice of medicine in Ontario if they were forced to act against their conscience. Physicians should not be punished for conducting their work according to their most deeply-held ethical or religious convictions.

The Ontario PC Party put forward two amendments that would have provided robust conscience protection. We believe health care professionals should not be forced to refer for, perform or assist in physician assisted suicide against their will and should not be discriminated against for taking this stand. Unfortunately both amendments were rejected by the Liberal majority on the committee.

Larry Worthen of the Coalition for HealthCARE and Conscience told the committee: “We want to reassure you that there is another way. No foreign jurisdiction that has legalized assisted suicide has required doctors or nurses to participate against their will, and there’s no indication that this has caused any crisis in access. Other provinces — specifically Alberta — have come up with innovative options.” Ontario can and should do the same.

My colleague Jeff Yurek, the health critic for the PC Caucus, will be introducing a Private Member’s Bill in May as another way to fight for conscience protection in Ontario.  I will continue to fight for conscience rights, and I encourage you to contact my office to share your thoughts and perspective on this very sensitive and important issue.

Sam Oosterhoff is the MPP for Niagara West-Glanbrook