{"id":5227,"date":"2014-10-15T19:17:24","date_gmt":"2014-10-16T02:17:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=5227"},"modified":"2018-03-08T12:58:07","modified_gmt":"2018-03-08T20:58:07","slug":"promises-promises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=5227","title":{"rendered":"Promises, promises"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canadian law reformers promise tolerance, freedom of conscience<\/h2>\n

What happens after the law is changed is another story.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sean Murphy*<\/a><\/p>\n

Now let me finally cut to the chase, to the heart of this appeal.\u00a0 The most vociferous opposition to our challenge comes from some church groups, and some disabled organizations.\u00a0 To the church groups we simply say that we respect your religious views, but they cannot, in this secular society,\u00a0 trump our clients’ constitutional rights.\u00a0 And no one is suggesting that a physician who has a religious objection to assisting a patient with his or her death must do so.
\nJoseph Arvay, Q.C., Oral Submission to the Supreme Court of Canada,\u00a0 Carter v. Canada<\/em>, 15 October, 2014<\/span><\/h5>\n

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the passage of the Quebec euthanasia law and the pending decision in Carter v. Canada<\/em> in the Supreme Court of Canada, physicians, medical students, nurses and other health care workers opposed to euthanasia and assisted suicide for reasons of conscience are confronted by the prospect that laws against the procedures will be struck down or changed.\u00a0 They may wonder what the future holds for them if that happens.<\/p>\n

Will they be forced to provide or assist with something they find morally abhorrent?\u00a0 If they refuse to do so, will they be disadvantaged, discriminated against, disciplined, sued or fired?\u00a0 Will they be forced out of their specialty or profession, or forced to emigrate if they wish to continue in it?<\/p>\n

The realpolitik<\/em> of law reform<\/strong><\/p>\n

These questions have been largely ignored, since much of the public debate about euthanasia and assisted suicide has been about whether or not the procedures should be legalized, not about what effect legalization might have on freedom of conscience, particularly among health care workers.\u00a0 Opponents of legalization understandably decline to raise the issue because they are concerned that doing so would compromise the message they want to deliver.<\/p>\n

Advocates of legalization, on the other hand, generally recognize that support for euthanasia and assisted suicide may begin to evaporate if it appears that they intend to force unwilling physicians or health care workers to participate in killing patients.\u00a0 In particular, they do not wish to alienate members of the health care community who, on principle or as a matter of prudent self-interest, would not support such a coercive policy.\u00a0 Instead, they adopt a reassuring posture of respect for freedom of conscience and tolerance for opposing views within the medical profession.<\/p>\n

It is instructive to see how this strategy has been applied in the case of the Quebec euthanasia law and the Carter<\/em> case, and then to consider how it was applied in the case abortion, another morally controversial procedure.\u00a0 While we cannot predict the future, we are now in a position to judge the worth of the assurances given when abortion was legalized over forty years ago, and to apply that judgement to assurances now being made about euthanasia.\u00a0[Full Text<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Canadian law reformers promise tolerance, freedom of conscience What happens after the law is changed is another story. Sean Murphy* Now let me finally cut to the chase, to the heart of this appeal.\u00a0 The most vociferous opposition to our challenge comes from some church groups, and some disabled organizations.\u00a0 To the church groups we … Continue reading “Promises, promises”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5432,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46,77,32,162,36,287,511],"tags":[101,1349,1251,1197,1350,1353,317,3368],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-5227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abortion","category-assisted-suicide","category-canada","category-euthanasia","category-essays","category-protection-of-conscience-project","category-society-politics","tag-carter-v-canada","tag-grace-macinnis","tag-henry-morgentaler","tag-jocelyn-downie","tag-john-turner","tag-joseph-arvay","tag-sean-murphy","tag-yves-bolduc"],"yoast_head":"\r\nPromises, promises - Protection of Conscience Project News<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.consciencelaws.org\/?p=5227\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Promises, promises - Protection of Conscience Project News\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Canadian law reformers promise tolerance, freedom of conscience What happens after the law is changed is another story. 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