Tag: Conscience Research Group (Canada)

Catholics urged to stand up for docs’ rights

 London Free Press

Jonathan Sher

A Roman Catholic cardinal is asking church members to fight a potential change that would discipline Ontario doctors who won’t provide birth control or refer patients for an abortion.

Thomas Cardinal Collins wrote earlier this month to the province’s Catholic bishops, who in turn enlisted their priests and parishioners.

“Trying to force doctors to act against their conscience would have terrible consequences for all of us,” Bishop Ronald Fabbro, of the Diocese of London, wrote to priests.

Until now, the regulatory college that disciplines doctors left it to them to decide when to withhold treatment or referrals that offended their religious or moral beliefs. [Full text]

Entrenching a ‘duty to do wrong’ in medicine

Canadian government funds project to suppress freedom of conscience and religion

 Sean Murphy*

A 25 year old woman who went to an Ottawa walk-in clinic for a birth control prescription was told that the physician offered only Natural Family Planning and did not prescribe or refer for contraceptives or related services. She was given a letter explaining that his practice reflected his “medical judgment” and “professional ethical concerns and religious values.” She obtained her prescription at another clinic about two minutes away and posted the physician’s letter on Facebook. The resulting crusade against the physician and two like-minded colleagues spilled into mainstream media and earned a blog posting by Professor Carolyn McLeod on Impact Ethics.

Professor McLeod objects to the physicians’ practice for three reasons. First: it implies – falsely, in her view – that there are medical reasons to prefer natural family planning to manufactured contraceptives. Second, she claims that refusing to refer for contraceptives and abortions violates a purported “right” of access to legal services. Third, she insists that the physician should have met the patient to explain himself, and then helped her to obtain contraception elsewhere by referral. Along the way, she criticizes Dr. Jeff Blackmer of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) for failing to denounce the idea that valid medical judgement could provide reasons to refuse to prescribe contraceptives. . .
Full Text