NH House Roundup: House kills ‘medical conscience’ bill, restores rail study

New Hampshire Union Leader

Dave Solomon

CONCORD — A bill that would allow medical professionals to exercise their “rights of conscience” failed in a 218-109 vote in the House of Representatives on Thursday.

The bill, HB 1787, would allow medical professionals to refuse any procedure that goes against their personal beliefs, including abortion, providing contraceptives or contraceptive counseling.

“In our state right now, there are no rights of conscience protections for medical people,” said Rep. Kurt Wuelper, R-Strafford. “Doctors are required in many areas to participate in and perform procedures that violate their consciences. That’s not right.” . . .[Full Text]

‘The solution is assisted life’: Offered death, terminally ill Ont. man files lawsuit

CTV News

A landmark lawsuit has been filed by an Ontario man suffering from an incurable neurological disease. He alleges that health officials will not provide him with an assisted home care team of his choosing, instead offering, among other things, medically assisted death.

“My condition is grievous and irremediable,” 42-year-old Roger Foley said from his bed at the London Health Science Centre’s Victoria Hospital in a video that was recently posted online. “But the solution is assisted life with self-directed funding.”

According to Foley, a government-selected home care provider had previously left him in ill health with injuries and food poisoning. Unwilling to continue living at home with the help of that home care provider, and eager to leave the London hospital where he’s been cloistered for two years, Foley is suing the hospital, several health agencies and the attorneys general of Ontario and Canada in the hopes of being given the opportunity to set up a health care team to help him live at home again — a request he claims he has previously been denied. . . [Full Text]

Formal network of docs offering medical assistance in dying is in the works for northeastern Ontario

Informal referral network currently in place with local physicians

CBC News

Angela Gemmill

For those in Sudbury and District seeking a doctor’s help to die, it may soon get a little easier to find one who is trained.

About 40 doctors and nurse practitioners in the region are now trained to offer Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), after they had specialized training last fall in Sudbury from the Canadian Medical Association.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in June, 2016  that medical assistance in dying is a constitutional right, under Bill C-14.

Between then and now, there has only been an informal network for people seeking medically assisted death, said Dr. Paul Preston, Vice President of Clinical for the North East Local Health Integration Network, and an advocate for access for those seeking a doctor’s help with dying. . . [Full text]

 

Doubts grow over ‘nurse’ used by anti-abortion campaign

The Times

Catherine Sanz

The man portrayed as a nurse for an anti-abortion campaign held an eight-month portering role and falsified a qualification document.

Save the 8th, which campaigns against repeal of the Eighth Amendment, said yesterday it stood by the adverts despite discovering that Noel Pattern, 48, from Wexford, was not honest in the testimony. It said the main point was that Mr Pattern witnessed something he felt was unethical which had not been disputed. The adverts have been taken down at the end of a two-week booking. . . [Full Text]

Dutch prosecutors to investigate euthanasia cases after sharp rise

Doctor-assisted deaths of four women in the Netherlands found to warrant criminal inquiries

The Guardian

Criminal investigations have been launched into four cases of euthanasia in the Netherlands after a sharp rise in the number of doctor-assisted deaths.

The cases follow the opening of a criminal inquiry last year into the euthanasia of a 74-year-old woman who was described by prosecutors as “seriously demented” and legally incapable of choosing whether to die or not. . . [Full Text]