Public prostitution, freely available marijuana, conventional same-sex marriage—yet the Netherlands is, perhaps, best known around the world for pioneering physician-assisted death. Outside of the country, its reputation is easily misconceived and sometimes blown out of proportion. For example, in 2012 the Dutch were astonished to hear this assertion of former U.S. Senator and presidential candidate Rick Santorum . . . Full Text
Therapeutic Homicide and Suicide in Canada:Collaboration, Conscription, Coercion and Conscience
Presented at the Central Oregon Right to Life Conference
Redmond, Oregon
10 September, 2016
Preface
Thank you for the invitation to make this presentation on behalf of the Protection of Conscience Project.
Rather than use our time to talk about the Project, I have made background information and materials available in the display. After the presentation, I can answer questions or speak privately with people who would like to know more.
The presentation today is about therapeutic homicide and suicide in Canada. More specifically it is about expectations of collaboration, conscription of health care workers, and ongoing attempts to compel participation in morally contested services. [Full text]
Bioethicist calls for a ban on doctors’ conscientious objection
The Sydney Morning Herald
Doctors working in the public system should be banned from refusing to perform certain procedures, such as abortions, because of their religious beliefs, a leading bioethicist will argue in Brisbane next week.
Oxford-based Australian bioethicist Julian Savulescu will make the argument at a public lecture at the Queensland University of Technology’s Australian Centre for Health Law Research next Tuesday.
In his lecture, Professor Savulescu will also argue doctors and health professionals should only enter medical specialities in which their values would not be in conflict with routine legal medical procedures. . . [Full text]
Vancouver bishop speaks out on conscience rights, end-of-life care
LifeSite News
VANCOUVER, August 22, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — Archbishop Michael Miller has reaffirmed that health care practitioners cannot be “pressured or coerced” into providing assisted suicide or euthanasia, which are now legal in Canada under Bill C-14, passed June 17.
In an August 11 letter to all hospitals and Catholic health care institutions in his diocese of approximately 430,000 Catholics, Miller stated that the “conscience of caregivers, physicians, nurses, and support staff must always be respected” and health care professionals should not be discriminated against for refusing to kill their patients by medical means or refusing to provide a “direct effective referral.”
“We maintain as a fundamental principle that any action or omission which of itself or by intention causes or hastens death is a grave violation of the commandment: ‘You shall not kill’,” he wrote. . . [Full text]
Christian doctors’ group calls referring patients for assisted death ‘morally the same’
Christian Medical and Dental Society prefers ‘total transfer of care’ to other doctors in such cases
CBC News
The head of the Christian doctors’ group that met recently with Manitoba’s health minister says doctors with religious or moral objections to physician-assisted dying should not be forced to issue referrals to patients but instead allow patients to switch doctors altogether.
The Christian Medical and Dental Society met with Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen on July 11 to lobby for conscience protection for doctors who object to physician-assisted death.
The group is also asking Ontario’s top court to reverse a provincial government policy requiring physicians to refer patients who want an assisted death to another doctor. . . [Full text]