Cardinal Thomas Collins, Catholic Archbishop of Toronto, warns that the Supreme Court was unwise to trust Colleges of Physicians to protect physicians who are unwilling to provide assisted suicide or euthanasia for reasons of conscience. He noted that the College of Physicians of Ontario is planning to force objecting physicians to refer patients to colleagues willing to kill them or help them commit suicide, thus making the objectors “accomplices” in the killing. His comments were part of an extensive critique of the Supreme Court of Canada ruling in Carter v. Canada. [LifeSite News]
Category: News
Saskatoon groups concerned over assisted suicide ruling
Saskatoon doctor worried about Supreme Court assisted suicide ruling
Global News
SASKATOON – One Saskatoon doctor is worried about the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling last week that opens the door to physician assisted suicide. Dr. Philip Fitzpatrick, a family doctor and ER physician, says it flies in the face of doctors’ commitment not to cause harm to patients.
“This is a bit of a red line because as physicians we’re not supposed to be partaking in anything that might harm our patients,” he told Global News. “Definitely for me participating in an assisted suicide would be harming my patient – even a referral for that would make me culpable for that.” [Full text]
Supreme Court of Canada orders legalization of physician assisted suicide – AND euthanasia
Physicians unwilling to kill already face demands that they find someone who will
In a 9-0 ruling the Supreme Court of Canada struck down two sections of Canada’s Criminal Code “insofar as they prohibit physician-assisted death” in circumstances outlined by the Court. It appears that most or all of the major media outlets understood this to mean that the Court had legalized physician assisted suicide.
In fact, the Court has authorized physicians not only to help eligible patients commit suicide, but to kill them – whether or not they are capable of suicide. The ruling permits both physician assisted suicide and physician administered euthanasia in the case of competent adults who have clearly consented to being killed, and who have a grievous irremediable medical condition “including an illness, disease or disability” that causes “enduring suffering that is intolerable to the individual.”
The Court limited its ruling to the facts of the Carter case, but offered no opinion “on other situations” where physicians might be asked to kill patients or help them commit suicide. It is highly likely that the parameters set by the Court in Carter will be expanded in federal or provincial laws or in later litigation. It would certainly be a serious mistake to presume that the goalposts set in Carter will not be moved.
Even where euthanasia and assisted suicide are legal, most physicians are unwilling to do what the Supreme Court of Canada now expects Canadian physicians to do: lethally inject patients and write prescriptions for lethal medications.
However, acknowledging the joint intervention of the Protection of Conscience Project, Catholic Civil Rights League and Faith and Freedom Alliance and submissions by others, including the Canadian Medical Association, the Court stated: “In our view, nothing in the declaration of invalidity which we propose to issue would compel physicians to provide assistance in dying.”
The judges noted that “a physician’s decision to participate in assisted dying is a matter of conscience and, in some cases, of religious belief,” and that “the Charter rights of patients and physicians will need to be reconciled.”
Unfortunately, euthanasia activists understand “reconciliation” to mean that physicians unwilling to kill patients or help them kill themselves should be forced to refer them to a colleague willing to do so. This is the view of Dr. James Downar, a Toronto palliative care physician, who told the Canadian Medical Association Journal that it is critical to ensure all Canadians have access to “physician assisted dying.”
Commenting on the remarks attributed to Dr. Downar, Protection of Conscience Project Administrator Sean Murphy noted that many other palliative care physicians were concerned about ensuring access to palliative care, not finding physicians willing to kill patients.
“They certainly aren’t inclined to force colleagues to participate in assisted suicide and euthanasia,” he said. “Quite the contrary: many would refuse to direct patients to physicians willing to kill them or help them commit suicide.”
“Carter is not the last word on the euthanasia, assisted suicide and freedom of conscience,” he added, “but only the first of many to come.”
For details, see Supreme Court of Canada orders legalization of physician assisted suicide – AND euthanasia
Webcast on Ontario Physicians’ Conscience Rights
On February 8 the Catholic Civil Rights League, the Toronto Catholic Doctors’ Guild, and Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute held a seminar/webinar to help you frame your response to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario’s policy document on professional obligations and human rights.