Doctors in Canada unwilling to assist patients to commit suicide are now required to refer patients to physicians who will under new regulations.

According to Lifesite News, the country’s College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario has issued a new policy document, ‘Planning for and Providing Quality End-of-Life Care’, which aims to deal with issues surrounding assisted suicide. Included in the document is a section on conscientious objection, where doctor’s are afforded the right to refuse active participation in assisted suicide, but simultaneously must adhere to another policy document of the College, ‘Professional Obligations and Human Rights’. Under the guidelines contained in this second document, physicians objecting on religious or moral grounds to assisted suicide must nevertheless make “an effective referral to another health-care provider” who is willing to assist.

In drafting ‘Planning for and Providing Quality End-of-Life Care’, the College of Physicians has flown in the face of public opinion on the matter, which was voiced during a public consultation on the document. That consultation showed that 77% of 32,000 responses supported a doctor’s right to “to refuse to provide a patient with a treatment or procedure because it conflicts with the physician’s religious or moral beliefs”.

Following the introduction of assisted suicide to Ontario – on foot of a ruling from the nation’s highest court – doctors’ groups opposed to referral as contained in the ‘Professional Obligations and Human Rights’ document, mounted a legal challenge, arguing that referral itself makes an opposing doctor party to assisted suicide. That case is ongoing.

The court ruling on introducing assisted suicide becomes law in February 2016.