Waterloo Region Record
Last week five doctors and several rights groups were in Ontario’s Divisional Court challenging rules imposed by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario to punish doctors who refuse to help arrange assisted suicide. The Court reserved its ruling, which will be released at a later date.
Ontario’s new assisted suicide law amended various Acts in response to the federal legislation on assisted suicide. Pleas to guarantee freedom of conscientious objection for doctors who defy orders to provide “effective referral” were ignored by the legislature, so penalties imposed by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario against conscientious objectors remain in force.
Remarkably, in just two short years Canadians have gone from punishing those who helped arrange assisted suicide to punishing those who refuse to arrange assisted suicide. . . [Full text]