Tag: Saskatchewan

Saskatoon doctor worried about Supreme Court assisted suicide ruling

Global News

Doug Lett

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]

 

Saskatchewan physicians to be forced to participate in killing their patients

For Immediate Release

Maurice Vellacott, MP Saskatoon-Wanuskewin

OTTAWA – “The assault on freedom of conscience that is spreading across our country ought to be of grave concern to every freedom-loving Canadian ,” MP Maurice Vellacott said upon learning of yet another province (this time his own) that plans to force physicians to participate in morally objectionable procedures, including those that kill. “No health care worker should be forced against their will to take part in the killing of another human being. It would be a grotesque violation of their human dignity.”

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan (CPSS) has adopted in principle a policy[i]  which it basically “cut and paste” from the Conscience Research Group’s (CRG’s) Model Policy on Conscientious Objection in Medicine.[ii]

Mr. Vellcott asked a series of questions that paint a disturbing picture of the process, or lack thereof, that went into CPSS’s adoption of this objectionable policy:

“Was the CPSS aware that the drafters of the Model Policy, notably Professor Jocelyn Downie of Dalhousie University, are abortion and euthanasia activists?

Did the CPSS solicit input from anyone other than Professor Downie and her team at the CRG[iii] before adopting this policy?

Did the Saskatchewan College let on to anyone else that it was even considering this issue?

Is the CPSS aware that this policy was rejected by the Canadian Medical Association (CMA)?”

Mr. Vellacott explained: “Professor Downie and co-author Sanda Rodgers, in a 2006 guest editorial in the CMA Journal, ignited a firestorm of controversy when they falsely claimed that CMA policy requires physicians to make abortion referrals regardless of their conscientious/religious beliefs. As Sean Murphy, Administrator of the Protection of Conscience Project, points out in his recent news release, that claim was repudiated by the CMA and vehemently rejected by physicians. And partly as a result of that negative response, Professor Downie turned her attention to the regulatory Colleges to try to convince them to impose mandatory referral.”[iv]

Earlier this month, Mr. Vellacott spoke out against a similar draft policy of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO). At that time, he expressed concerns that if the Supreme Court of Canada strikes down Canada’s current ban on euthanasia or assisted suicide, then CPSO’s policy would mean Ontario’s physicians would have a ‘duty to refer’ patients for these life-ending procedures. He stressed that no other jurisdiction that currently allows euthanasia or assisted suicide imposes such an obligation. [v]

“While the CPSO policy is not identical to the CPSS/CRG Model Policy, in principle it is the same—a coercive attempt to involve physicians in the killing of some of the most vulnerable members of our human family,” Mr. Vellacott said. “The sheer fact that these Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons feel that a coercive policy of referral for these controversial procedures is necessary, is itself testament to the fact that there is something inherently problematic about these procedures in the first place. If they were procedures just like any other medical procedure, there’d be no need to coerce physicians into sacrificing a fundamental part of who they are—their very consciences—in order to provide them.”

“No good can come from forcing a doctor to practice medicine in a way they find morally reprehensible. Killing the consciences of our medical doctors will cause inestimable harm to the people of Canada and society as a whole.”

“One cannot help but wonder, what is the real motivation of those pushing us down this dangerous path?  And will we have the courage and wisdom and foresight to stop it?”

For information on providing input to CPSS on its draft policy, visit: http://www.cps.sk.ca/CPSS/CouncilAndCommittees/Council_Consultations_and_Surveys.aspx

 – 30 –

 For further information and comment, call (613) 992-1966 or (613) 297-2249; email: maurice.vellacott.a1@parl.gc.ca

[i] The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan (CPSS) is currently seeking input on a conscientious objection policy dubbed “Conscientious Refusal,”  which it has adopted in principle. This policy would require physicians who object to providing certain “legally permissible and publicly-funded health services” to “make a timely referral to another health care provider who is willing and able to accept the patient and provide the service.” In cases where the patient’s “health or well-being” would be jeopardized by a delay in finding another physician, the physician would be forced to provide the service even when it “conflicts with physicians’ deeply held and considered moral or religious beliefs.” See: http://www.cps.sk.ca/Documents/Council/2015%201%2019%20Conscientious%20Objection%20policy%20approved%20in%20principle%20by%20Council.pdf

[ii] http://carolynmcleod.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/04_Downie-McLeod-Shaw.pdf

[iii] http://conscience.carolynmcleod.com/meet-the-team/

[iv] “Saskatchewan physicians to be forced to do what they believe to be wrong,” Protection of Conscience Project news release, Jan. 27, 2015

[v] See Jan. 8, 2015 news release  and Backgrounder.

All Saskatchewan doctors must refer for abortions: draft policy

 LifeSiteNews

Steve Weatherbe

Saskatchewan pro-life doctors will soon be forced to act against their consciences and required to refer patients who want treatments such as abortion to other doctors. And if no other doctor is available, doctors could be required to do abortions provided they are technically competent.

So says a draft policy of the Saskatchewan Physicians and Surgeons that the organization’s ruling council approved in principle on January 16.  It will vote again to enshrine the document in the professional code of ethics at its meetings on March 26 and 27, and provides member doctors just until March 6 to give feedback. . . [Full text]

   

Saskatchewan physicians to be forced to do what they believe to be wrong

Policy wording supplied by abortion and euthanasia activists

Policy would apply to euthanasia, if legalized.

Protection of Conscience Project News Release

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan is proposing a draft policy demanding that physicians who object to “legally permissible and publicly-funded health services” must direct patients to colleagues who will provide them.  If another physician is unavailable, the College demands that they provide “legally permissible and publicly-funded” services,  even if doing so “conflicts with physicians’ deeply held and considered moral or religious beliefs.”

Physicians usually refuse to participate in abortion because they believe it is wrong to kill what the criminal law refers to as a child that has not become a human being.1 The proposed policy will require them to find a physician willing to do the killing they won’t do.  Should the Supreme Court of Canada legalize euthanasia, the policy will require objecting physicians who refuse to kill patients to find someone who will.

The seamless fit between referral for abortion and referral for euthanasia is not surprising.  The draft College policy was largely written by abortion and euthanasia activists, notably Professor Jocelyn Downie of Dalhousie University.

In a 2006 guest editorial in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Professor Downie and another law professor claimed that objecting physicians are obliged to refer patients for abortion.2  Their views were vehemently rejected by physicians and repudiated by the Canadian Medical Association.3  Partly as a result of the negative response, Professor Downie and her colleagues in the “Conscience Research Group” decided to convince Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons to impose it.4

Saskatchewan’s draft policy is taken almost verbatim from their “Model Conscientious Objection Policy.”

The Conscience Research Group is  a tax-funded initiative that includes Professors Downie and Daniel Weinstock.5   Both  were members of an “expert panel” that recommended that health care professionals who object to killing patients should be compelled to refer patients to someone who would,6 because (they claimed) it is agreed that they can be compelled to refer for “reproductive health services.”7

Current efforts by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario to suppress freedom of conscience in the medical profession may have been influenced by the Conscience Research Group.  However, the College in Saskatchewan is the first to copy and paste its preferred model into a draft policy.

The Project insists that it is incoherent and contrary to sound public policy to include a requirement to do what one believes to be wrong in a professional code of ethics. It is also an affront to the best traditions of liberal democracy, and, ultimately, dangerous.

The College Council has approved the policy in principle, but will accept feedback on it until 6 March, 2015.

Notes:

1.  Criminal Code, Section 238(1). (Accessed 2014-12-02)

2. Rodgers S. Downie J. “Abortion: Ensuring Access.” CMAJ July 4, 2006 vol. 175 no. 1 doi: 10.1503/cmaj.060548 (Accessed 2014-12-02).

3.  Blackmer J. Clarification of the CMA’s position on induced abortion. CMAJ April 24, 2007 vol. 176 no. 9 doi: 10.1503/cmaj.1070035 (Accessed 2014-02-22)

4.   McLeod C, Downie J. “Let Conscience Be Their Guide? Conscientious Refusals in Health Care.” Bioethics ISSN 0269-9702 (print); 1467-8519 (online) doi:10.1111/bioe.12075 Volume 28 Number 1 2014 pp ii–iv

5.   Let their conscience be their guide? Conscientious refusals in reproductive health care: Meet the team.(Accessed 2014-11-21)

6.  Schuklenk U, van Delden J.J.M, Downie J, McLean S, Upshur R, Weinstock D. Report of the Royal Society of Canada Expert Panel on End-of-Life Decision Making (November, 2011) p. 101 (Accessed 2014-02-23)

7.   Schuklenk U, van Delden J.J.M, Downie J, McLean S, Upshur R, Weinstock D. Report of the Royal Society of Canada Expert Panel on End-of-Life Decision Making (November, 2011) p. 62 (Accessed 2014-02-23)

A correction and qualifications

Letter to the Editor
The BC Catholic
Vancouver, B.C. Canada

20 February, 2012

Sean Murphy, Administrator
Protection of Conscience Project

A correction and some qualifications are in order with respect to the article by Deborah Gyapong about the contraception insurance controversy in the United States (“A Canadian debate over contraception is unlikely,” BC Catholic, 20 February, 2012).

In the first place, Mr. Roche of the Catholic Health Association of Canada is mistaken in his assertion that Catholic hospitals in Canada cannot be compelled to do things contrary to Catholic teaching. In 2006, St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Humboldt, Saskatchewan, operated by the Saskatchewan Catholic Health Association, decided to stop doing contraceptive sterilizations. Public protests resulted, and a woman denied a tubal ligation filed a human rights complaint. In June, 2007, St. Elizabeth’s was transferred to the Saskatoon Health Region and re-named the Humboldt District Hospital. Three months later, the Saskatchewan Catholic Health Corporation agreed to pay almost $8,000.00 to the complainant in the human rights action to settle the case.1 It would be most unwise to think that this kind of thing could not happen again.

Concerning the situation in the United States, it is true that the Catholic bishops, in a remarkable display of unanimity, have been vocal in protesting the demand to provide insurance coverage for surgical sterilization, contraceptives and potentially embryocidal or abortifacient drugs or devices. Many of them have said that they will refuse to comply with the law. It does not appear that they share Mr. Roche’s view that an emphasis on Catholic identity may be counterproductive with respect to the mission of Catholic health care. Nor do they seem to think that Catholic identity and Catholic mission are in conflict with each other, though they may well be in conflict with dominant social norms – as the example of what used to be St. Elizabeth’s Hospital demonstrates.

The prominence of the Catholic response notwithstanding, this is not a ‘Catholic’ issue. Strong protests have also been made by Jewish groups, Southern Baptists, Lutherans and Evangelical Christians. Colorado Christian University, a non-Catholic institution, filed suit months ago against the U.S.  federal government because of this mandate.2 Two more lawsuits have just been filed by Southern Baptist and Reformed Presbyterian colleges.3 And former governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee. recently declared that the response to the Obama administration’s mandate reminded him of President John F. Kennedy’s statement to the people of Berlin after the erection of the Berlin Wall: “Ich bin ein Berliner” (I am a Berliner). Huckabee, a Baptist , said, “In many ways, thanks to President Obama, we’re all Catholics now.”4

Testifying before a committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, Rabbi Meir Soloveichik warned that “not only does the new regulation threaten religious liberty in the narrow sense, in requiring Catholic communities to violate their religious tenets, but also the administration impedes religious liberty by unilaterally redefining what it means to be religious.”5

So this is not a ‘Catholic’ issue. Nor is it about women, or health, or birth control or contraception, as Dr. Laura Champion told the same committee. As the Director of Health Services at Calvin College in Michigan, she explained that the College has no objections to contraception, but she was emphatic that the morning after pill is not the same as cancer screening or vaccinations. “Pregnancy is not a disease,” she said. “This is a premise that I reject both religiously and medically.”6

Finally, the BC Catholic story states that the Catholic Health Association of the United States “decided on ‘a cautious acceptance’ of the compromise.” However, the actual wording of the newly published regulation is exactly the same as the wording that launched the firestorm of protest in late January.7 The administration’s promises have no legal significance, and, in any case, will not be fulfilled before the November presidential election. The description of the scheme as a ‘compromise’ thus seems premature.

Notes:

1.  CBC News, 13 September, 2007, “Woman given settlement after being denied tubal ligation.”(Accessed 2012-02-20)

2.  To see a graphic illustration of the resistance to the HHS mandate, see the interactive map.

3.  Alliance Defence Fund news releases, 20 February, 2012 : “ADF, Louisianna College challenge Obama Mandate“; “ADF, Geneva College to reveal lawsuit against Obama mandate Tuesday” (Accessed 2012-02-20)

4 “Mike Huckabee’s Full Speech at CPAC 2012.” ABC News, 10 February, 2012 (Accessed 2012-02-20)

5.   Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience? US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,16 February, 2012: Testimony of Rabbi Meir Soloveichik

6.  Lines Crossed: Separation of Church and State. Has the Obama Administration Trampled on Freedom of Religion and Freedom of Conscience? US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,16 February, 2012: Testimony of Laura Champion, MD.

7.  PART 147—Health Insurance Reform Requirements for the Group and Individual Health Insurance Markets § 147.130 Coverage of preventive health services.