Trampled rights

Catholic Register (Editorial)

Requiring doctors to remain pillars of integrity while chipping at their moral underpinning is an odious contradiction. Yet that is what the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario proposes with a draconian new policy that tramples on conscience and religious rights.

The provincial regulatory body disregarded the majority view of 16,000 public submissions, dismissed the opinion of the Ontario Medical Association and the American Medical Association, and rejected the policy of the Canadian Medical Association when it voted 21-3 to force doctors to refer patients who seek treatments that their own doctor won’t provide due to moral or religious convictions. . . [Full text]

Internal memos show how a handful of Canadian lawyers launched a national campaign against doctors’ conscience rights

LifeSite News

Steve Weatherbe

March 11, 2015 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Only a few weeks after Ontario’s College of Physicians and Surgeons voted to compel the province’s doctors to refer and even perform operations they consider immoral, Saskatchewan’s College is scheduled to follow suit. But all Canada’s provincial governing bodies have been urged to get on the bandwagon as part of a national campaign from an obscure, federally-funded coterie of pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia academics.

According to Sean Murphy, director of the British Columbia-based Protection of Conscience Project, the pro-abortion Conscience Research Group is the prime mover behind efforts by the leadership of the Ontario and Saskatchewan medical professions to force their members to do abortions, assist at suicides, and euthanize their patients upon request.

“Based on the correspondence I’ve seen,” Murphy told LifeSiteNews, “there does appear to be a movement to impose this on all doctors in Canada.” . . .[Full text]

Lawyers to UN: Forcing nurses to assist abortions violates international law

 Parallel meeting in Geneva on 12 March

News Release

Alliance Defending Freedom

ADF International will hold a parallel event at the 28th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva Thursday to call upon European nations to respect the fundamental right to freedom of conscience within the medical profession. Two ADF International lawyers will speak at the event and will be available for media interviews.

ADF International, in coalition with Scandinavian Human Rights Lawyers, will urge the UN Human Rights Council and the international community at large to confront the lack of protections for freedom of conscience in several European countries. Although this fundamental human right is protected under international and European human rights law, a growing trend – particularly within the medical profession – is to override it. As a result, doctors, nurses, and midwives are being fired for refusing to perform or partake in abortion procedures.

“No one deserves to  be denied a job simply because they are pro-life,” said Ruben Navarro, ADF International’s director of UN Advocacy-Geneva, who will speak at the event. “International law makes it clear that being pro-abortion cannot be a requirement for employment, nor can medical facilities force nurses and midwives with a conscience objection to assist with practices that can lead to an abortion.”

At the event, Ruth Nordström, president of Scandinavian Human Rights Lawyers and lead counsel in the case Grimmark vs. Jönköping City Council, will discuss the lack of conscience protections under Swedish law.

“Sweden has failed to develop a comprehensive and clear regulation that defines and regulates conscientious objection at the workplace, in particular for health care providers,” Nordström explains. “Swedish medical workers are being reprimanded, repositioned, fired, and put at a disadvantage in other ways as well. Their freedoms under international treaties are being violated.”

“Willingness to commit an abortion cannot be a litmus test for employment,” added ADF International Senior Legal Counsel and Director of UN Advocacy Paul Coleman. “Medical clinics and hospitals need to respect the desire and conviction of a midwife or nurse to protect life – a desire that led Ellinor Grimmark and others like her to pursue the profession in the first place.”

In the assisted-dying debate, where’s the compassion for doctors?

Edmonton Journal (Editorial)

What happens when those we trust most with human life are suddenly in charge of death?

Earlier this month, the B.C. Court of Appeal upheld a decision by the Supreme Court of Canada, ruling against a family who wanted their mother’s care home to stop spoon-feeding her.

It’s difficult to fault either party.

Margaret Bentley, 83, neither speaks nor recognizes her relatives, and her family is certain the former dementia-ward nurse, now in the late stages of Alzheimer’s disease herself, would not want her life to continue in her current state.

A living will written by Bentley in 1991 outlined as much in no uncertain terms: “If at such a time the situation should arise that there is no reasonable expectation of my recovery from extreme physical or mental disability, I direct that I be allowed to die and not be kept alive by artificial means or ‘heroic measures.’ ”

But Bentley’s health-care workers refused to deliberately withhold food. They argued that by opening her lips to receive food when touched with a spoon, Bentley was consenting to being fed, and thus to being kept alive. The courts agreed. . . [Full text]

CMDS Canada plans legal challenge to new Ontario College of Physicians policy

Note:  The following message has been sent to members of the Christian Medical Dental Society of Canada concerning the decision of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario to enact a policy that demands that physicians facilitate procedures to which they object for reasons of conscience by referring patients to a non-objecting colleague or agency.  It is reproduced here with permission.

We received the disappointing news today that the CPSO has passed their policy “Professional Obligations and Human Rights”. We ask that all members across the country join in prayer and ask our Lord to have mercy on us and to act to undo this policy that tramples on the constitutional freedoms of doctors of conscience.

We have already been in discussion with our lawyer Albertos Polizogopoulos who has been asked to prepare an application in court to have the policy struck down because it runs contrary to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

We are planning a press conference in Toronto to launch this court challenge in the next two weeks and we sincerely hope this stops other colleges from following suit. We know that Saskatchewan has a similar policy up for consideration, and other provinces might be considering this. We need to act quickly to try to stop other provinces from taking this step. Bryan Dias, national president of the Canadian Federation of Catholic Physician’s Societies has indicated that his organization will join in the application as well and other groups are also welcome.

We will be making a solicitation of members for this cause next week. We will be preparing to move legally in Saskatchewan as well if we are not successful with the Saskatchewan College.  We are going to try to raise $150,000 for this project. $25,000 has already been raised from the CMDS Canada Board of Directors alone. The money raised will also go towards a public awareness campaign and towards the development of a database of supporters.

Three doctors have come forward to be named in the court application in Ontario. We would encourage other Ontario doctors who feel strongly about this matter to come forward and allow their names to stand as well.  For more information, contact Larry at lworthen@cmdscanada.org

Many doctors are concerned about what to do in their practice now that the policy has been passed. We will be asking Albertos for his advice on this and will get back to you on this with a note very shortly.

One of the things we could consider is to try to get before the court quickly to ask that the policy be suspended until it gets before a judge, to hear the merits of the case.

One thing is for sure – please do not give up hope. We have a good legal strategy and alot of people pulling for us. There were over 16,000 submissions to CPSO on this issue and it has been reported that most were in favour of conscience rights generally. Most importantly, we have a God who is looking out for us and who wants us to continue His healing ministry. Let us keep each other in prayer and let us ask our respective congregations and parishes to pray for us as well.

Let’s not worry – because we know that the Lord has a plan.

Larry Worthen BA, MA (Th.), LLB
Executive Director
Christian Medical and Dental Society of Canada
Cell: (902) 880-2495

National Office:
1-197D Main Street  Steinbach MB R5G 1Y5 Phone: 204-326-2523
Fax: 204-326-3098 Toll Free:  1-888-256-8653 Website: www.cmdscanada.org