Jewish General Hospital opposes Bill 60 as patently discriminatory

News Release

The Jewish General Hospital (JGH) strongly opposes Bill 60, on the grounds that the plan by the current Government of Quebec to ban overt religious symbols in the clothing of healthcare employees is discriminatory and deeply insulting to public-sector workers.
Contrary to statements in the bill, the JGH believes that neutrality in the delivery of healthcare services is not compromised by religious symbols in the clothing of employees. As long as services are delivered with professional competence, courtesy and respect, no legislation should be allowed to override the freedoms of religion or expression that are guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and by the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.

“This bill is flawed and contrary to Quebec’s spirit of inclusiveness and tolerance,” says Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg, JGH Executive Director. “Since the bill is inherently prejudicial, there is no point in taking advantage of any clause that would grant us temporary, short-term relief. If approved, this offensive legislation would make it extremely difficult for the JGH to function as an exemplary member of Quebec’s public healthcare system.” Dr. Rosenberg’s statement is endorsed by the JGH Board of Directors.

For nearly 80 years, the JGH has prided itself on the fact that its staff—representing a wide diversity of faiths, with many employees wearing conspicuous items of clothing with religious symbols—has provided care of superior quality to Quebecers of all backgrounds. JGH patients continue to come to this hospital in ever-increasing numbers with only one thought in mind: to receive treatment and care of the highest quality. This is what matters most to residents of the hospital’s Côte-des-Neiges area, which is widely regarded as one of the most ethnically, racially, culturally, linguistically and religiously diverse neighbourhoods in Canada. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that the JGH receives no complaints about the religious or cultural apparel of its staff.

A brief outlining the position of the Jewish General Hospital will be submitted to the National Assembly at a later date.

No interviews will be given on the matter.

Contact:

Glenn J. Nashen, Director
Astrid Morin, Media Relations

Public Affairs and Communications Jewish General Hospital

Tel.: 514-340-8222  ext. 4612

Email: amorin@jgh.mcgill.ca

Website: jgh.ca

Health professionals participated in cruelty and torture

Medical, Military, and Ethics Experts Say Health Professionals Designed and Participated in Cruel, Inhumane, and Degrading Treatment and Torture of Detainees

New York, NY — An independent panel of military, ethics, medical, public health, and legal experts today charged that U.S. military and intelligence agencies directed doctors and psychologists working in U.S. military detention centers to violate standard ethical principles and medical standards to avoid infliction of harm. The Task Force on Preserving Medical Professionalism in National Security Detention Centers (see attached) concludes that since September 11, 2001, the Department of Defense (DoD) and CIA improperly demanded that U.S. military and intelligence agency health professionals collaborate in intelligence gathering and security practices in a way that inflicted severe harm on detainees in U.S. custody.

These practices included “designing, participating in, and enabling torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment” of detainees, according to the report. Although the DoD has taken steps to address some of these practices in recent years, including instituting a committee to review medical ethics concerns at Guantanamo Bay Prison, the Task Force says the changed roles for health professionals and anemic ethical standards adopted within the military remain in place. [Full report]

 

Reprehensible comments by Australian physician

Efforts to support freedom of conscience in health care in Australia have been tarnished  by comments made on Facebook posts by a physician identified only as “Dr. K” .  The physician became the subject of an investigation and disciplinary hearing after the posts were reported to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.  In addition to asserting that he refused to refer for abortions, the physician made several reprehensible remarks.   Among them was an assertion that a woman who dies from injuries incurred in a “back alley abortion” deserved to die “for trying to kill her own child.”  A physician’s group supporting freedom of conscience in health care issued a statement that it “vehemently disagrees with and utterly repudiates the idea and sentiment that any woman deserves any kind of harm for any reason whatsoever.”  [The Age]

American activist organization assists with push for expanded abortion law in Ireland

The Center for Reproductive Rights, an American activist organization based in New York, is assisting three women who are approaching the United Nations in an attempt to force Ireland to expand its newly-minted abortion law to include abortion for reasons of foetal abnormality likely to result in the death of the child soon after birth.  They are also supported by an Irish “Doctors for Choice” group. [Irish Central] [The Guardian]

Abortion law changes eyed as Dr Mark Hobart probed

The Sydney Morning Herald

Henrietta Cook

The Napthine government is not ruling out changes to Victoria’s abortion laws ahead of an investigation into a doctor who refused to give a couple an abortion referral because they wanted a boy.

The state government said it was interested in the outcome of the Medical Board of Victoria’s investigation into Mark Hobart, a pro-life doctor who has been accused of breaking the state’s abortion laws.

It comes as pro-life advocates run a concerted campaign to repeal a section of the Abortion Law Reform Act, which requires doctors who have a conscientious objection to abortion to refer a woman to someone with no such objection. [Full story]