Two doctors in the Canadian province of Manitoba have said they will defy a requirement to cooperate with assisted suicide requests in any way, including referring patients to pro-assisted suicide doctors, even at the cost of their jobs.
According to Lifesite News, Drs Mark Kristjanson and Larry Rados have spoken out in response to a call by the Manitoba College of Physicians and Surgeons for opinions from medical practitioners on the proposed adoption of a policy on assisted suicide and euthanasia.
“The Hippocratic Oath is the foundation of medicine,” said Dr Kristjanson during an interview with the Canadian Broadcasting Company. “And part of that tradition explicitly regards the patient, one’s fellow human being, as sacred. There is a very explicit commitment to not take the life of a patient. It’s distressing, it’s disturbing and saddens me it has come to this.”
Dr Rados, meanwhile stated: “This isn’t why I or some or my colleagues went into medicine. It’s to wear the white coat of the healer not the black coat of hastening someone’s death. I would subject myself to whatever discipline that is necessary to follow my conscience.”
Manitoba has launched its discussion on assisted suicide and euthanasia in the wake of shifts in medical policy in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta which require doctors to refer on patients requesting procedures which go against conscientious objection. Canada’s Supreme Court is also expected to rule shortly on the criminal codes surrounding assisted suicide and euthanasia.
The Christian Medical and Dental Association of Canada (CMDS) has condemned any further moves towards policies which would force medical practitioners to go against their own consciences.
Citing the nation’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the CMDS has stressed that “there must be a very compelling reason to restrict freedom of conscience, and whatever restriction must be kept to a minimum”.
Arguing for conscience rights to be protected, Dr Rados added: “Every doctor that has been around for a while knows there are times when you say no. We say no when a patient asks for narcotics and doesn’t need them. We should be allowed to say no in this case as well with regard to referring patients.”
