Tag: Sean Murphy

Hawaii legalizes assisted suicide: Refusing to refer for suicide may incur legal liability

Sean Murphy*

Assisted suicide will become legal in Hawaii on 1 January, 2019, as a result of the passage of the Our Care, Our Choice Act. Introduced in the state House of Representatives only in January, it passed both the House and Senate and was approved by Governor David Ige on 5 April. Beginning next year, physicians will be able to write prescriptions for lethal medications for Hawaiian residents who are capable of informed consent, who are at least 18 years old, and who have been diagnosed with a terminal, incurable disease expected to result in death within six months.1

And beginning next year, Hawaiian physicians who refuse to facilitate assisted suicide by referring patients to a willing colleague may face discipline — including expulsion from the medical profession — or other legal liabilities. Hawaii could become one of only two jurisdictions in the world where willingness to refer patients for suicide is a condition for practising medicine.2 . . . [Full text]

Pharmacist freedom of conscience recognized in British Columbia

LifeSite News

Steve Weatherbe

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, March 9, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) – Christian pharmacists in British Columbia can now practice with a clear conscience.

Under the B.C. College of Pharmacy’s new ethics code, they cannot be forced to prescribe for abortions, euthanasia, or artificial contraception.

Cristina Alarcon, a Vancouver-area community pharmacist who was a driving force behind the new code, says it “covers everything.” For the first time, pharmacists can refuse to dispense any prescription that violates their conscience. [Full text]

 

Quebec euthanasia rate almost doubled in last half of 2016

Quebec euthanasia rate after one year passes Belgian rate at five year mark

Sean Murphy*

Since 10 December, 2015, euthanasia has provided by physicians in Quebec under the terms of An Act Respecting End of Life Care (ARELC).  Health and social services agencies established by the government throughout the province are state agencies responsible for the delivery and coordination of health care in the province administrative regions. These are called Centres intégrés de santé et de services sociaux (CISSS) and Centres intégrés universitaires de santé et de services sociaux [CIUSSS).  Some administrative regions (like Montreal and the Quebec City region) have more than one CISSS or CIUSSS.

These agencies are responsible for the delivery of euthanasia and are required to make reports to a commission established by the law (the Commission sur les soins de fin de vie) to monitor the administration of euthanasia.  According to the Commission, they are also required to post these reports on their websites.

As of 6 March, 2016, one of these agencies (Outaouais) had not posted the reports on its website.  Two (Outaouais and Abitibi-Temiscamingue) had neither posted the most recent report nor sent the report to the Commission, and did not respond to a request for it.

The Project has compiled the statistics provided by the other agencies in tables and charts.  Note that, in some cases, the number of patients lethally infused is higher than the number of requests because euthanasia was provided in response to a request made in the previous reporting period.

Quebec’s euthanasia rate almost doubled in the last half of 2016.  One year after legalization, Quebec has passed the euthanasia rate reached by Belgium after five years.  If Quebec’s rate continues without escalation throughout 2017, it will exceed that achieved by Belgium after nine years.

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

Sean Murphy*

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]

 

Ontario physician first to announce plans to quit medicine due to demand for referral for euthanasia

Sean Murphy*

Moral imperialism by state authorities in Canada is beginning to take its toll.  A physician in Strathroy, Ontario, has publicly announced that she will not be renewing her licence to practise medicine because the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario demands that she must either kill patients or help them commit suicide, or arrange for someone else to do so.

The College policy is a response to the 2015 Supreme Court of Canada ruling in Carter v. Canada (Attorney General).

Writing in the professional journal Canadian Family Physician in response to an article by Dr. Stephen Genuis (Emerging assault on freedom of conscience), Dr. Nancy Naylor thanked him for eloquently expressing her thoughts.  She states that mandatory referral for euthanasia or assisted suicide is “an assault on my integrity and ethics as a physician.”

Dr. Naylor has been a family physician for 37 years and has been exclusively providing palliative care for the past three years.

“I have no wish to stop,” she writes.  “But I will not be told that I must go against my moral conscience to provide standard of care.”