Tag: physicians

Don’t trample other folks’ rights with euthanasia

The Province

Gordon Clark

It’s not often that an issue comes along where I struggle to figure out where I stand, especially after considering various points of view. But like many people I’ve spoken with recently, I sure find myself conflicted about euthanasia which, thanks to last year’s Supreme Court of Canada ruling, is rapidly becoming transmogrified from murder into a publicly funded health-care service not much different than an emergency appendectomy.

The court has given the federal government until June 6 to draft the rules by which doctors will be permitted to end the lives of suffering people who consent to be killed. . . [Full Text]

Cardinal Thomas Collins: Don’t force physicians to act against their conscience

As Canada develops its assisted dying legislation, we should be careful to protect health care workers’ right to follow their conscience

Toronto Star

“Contemplating Suicide? We Can Help!” There was a time when such an advertisement pointed to a crisis line, where someone was standing by to counsel you and offer hope in a situation of intolerable pain.

We are in a very different time, now. In a few short months, assisted suicide, its grim reality hidden behind blandly deceptive terms like “medical assistance in dying,” will be declared an acceptable option in our country, enshrined in law. As the federal government prepares legislation to implement the Supreme Court’s decision, it is crucial to consider the effects of this fundamental change in our laws.

Death comes to us all – sometimes suddenly, and sometimes slowly. Although patients benefit from medication that controls pain, they are fully justified in refusing burdensome and disproportionate treatment that serves only to prolong the inevitable process of dying. But dying is simply not the same as being killed. We are grateful for physicians and nurses and others who offer medical assistance to patients who are dying, but it is never justified for them to kill a patient. . .[Full text]

 

 

 

MDs group disappointed by recommendation to require referrals for assisted death

Canadian Press

Sheryl Ubelacker

TORONTO — A parliamentary committee’s recommendation that doctors who object to assisted dying be required to at least refer patients to a willing colleague is not only disappointing, but has also led some physicians to consider leaving their practices, says the Canadian Medical Association.

The all-party committee, which released a set of recommendations Thursday aimed at helping the federal government draft legislation governing medically aided death, said Ottawa should work with the provinces and territories to establish a process that respects a doctor’s freedom of conscience, while respecting the needs of patients.

“At a minimum, the objecting practitioner must provide an effective referral for the patient,” the committee said. . . [Full text]

Doctors won’t impede assisted death, says CMA in open letter

Dr. Cindy Forbes

The Canadian Medical Association (CMA) would like to correct suggestions that timely patient access to assisted dying will be impeded by physicians choosing either not to provide the service or not to make a referral to a colleague or an agency.

The CMA would like to respectfully suggest that this is simply not true, and that many years of international evidence definitively shows this to be the case.

This should not be a debate between patient access or the right to conscientious objection by health care professionals; we absolutely can accomplish both. Put simply, there are other ways besides a referral to ensure access, without requiring a physician to violate his or her moral integrity. And none of these in any way involve abandonment of the patient in a time of great distress.

Access to assisted dying will not be constrained if we do not impose mandatory referral requirements on physicians who see referral as being complicit in the act itself. Nor does this in any way involve imposing the moral views of the physician on the patient he or she serves. . . [Full text]