[Newsbot]

Title: Quebec Doctors Must Follow Assisted Death Rules, Regardless Of Opinion: Health Minister
Category: Health
Posted By: Freakinoldguy
Date: 2015-09-03 16:54:19
Canadian

[Freakinoldguy]

Let me preface this with the fact that I'm in favour of assisted suicide in certain instances but, this legislation flies in the face of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that supposedly assures:

$1:

Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: (a) freedom of conscience and religion;(b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication;(c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and(d) freedom of association.

First off, opposition to assisted suicide isn't an opinion, it's a belief and flies in the face of a doctors Hippocratic oath so, demanding that they break their own beliefs or oaths is akin to the gov't making themselves omnipotent which, gives rise to the question. Will, or how long will it be till they start demanding that the Doctors assist in suicides for people who haven't or aren't able to give the necessary consent?

[andyt]

Seems the headline doesn't match the article:

$1:

Barrette says that on an individual basis, a doctor could invoke an objection of conscience and refuse to shorten the life of a sick person.

But he insists that the institution must respond to the request and find another doctor willing to offer the service.

Sounds good to me.

[Freakinoldguy]

andyt andyt:

Seems the headline doesn't match the article:

$1:

Barrette says that on an individual basis, a doctor could invoke an objection of conscience and refuse to shorten the life of a sick person.

But he insists that the institution must respond to the request and find another doctor willing to offer the service.

Sounds good to me.

Like I said no problem with assisted suicide in certain circumstances but here's a question. What happens when you have all the doctors in the same clinic who refuse to comply with assisted suicide?

Wouldn't that be contrary to the Gov't edict and how would they respond?

[andyt]

Bring in outside doctors willing to do it. Since this is a palliative care unit, you can't bring the patient to the doctor.

[BeaverFever]

Freakinoldguy Freakinoldguy:

andyt andyt:

Seems the headline doesn't match the article:

$1:

Barrette says that on an individual basis, a doctor could invoke an objection of conscience and refuse to shorten the life of a sick person.

But he insists that the institution must respond to the request and find another doctor willing to offer the service.

Sounds good to me.

Like I said no problem with assisted suicide in certain circumstances but here's a question. What happens when you have all the doctors in the same clinic who refuse to comply with assisted suicide?

Wouldn't that be contrary to the Gov't edict and how would they respond?

The doctors, the general public, the medical community generally and the palliative care community specifically will know or easily find out which doctors refuse to participate and which don't. In fact there will probably be all sorts of community resource clinics, social workers and non-profits that specialize in guiding people through end-of-life options.
As for small little Catholic Quebec towns with only a handful of religious doctors, well they'll just have to call someone in. They probably have call in arrangements with other specialists from the nearest big city.

[Thanos]

With this being mostly-mellow Canada and with doctors being the kind of people they are I highly doubt we'll see any significant incidents of pro-life goofiness interfering with what the patients and their families have requested. Doctors and nurses see the worst suffering in the world every day they're on the job so they're to ones most likely to accept without any argument when a patient and their family decide when life is no longer worth living. Palliative care workers are a different breed anyway. Most of them probably think we're still in the dark ages on this kind of issue and should have been doing a long time ago what Belgium and the Netherlands have accepted as a basic human right.

[andyt]

Only 30% of doctors have said they would personally be willing to administer euthanasia. That's out of all doctors, ie specialties that would never be called upon to do so. But there is a significant number of doctors who would refuse even tho it's in their balliwick. And it's a palliative care unit that's at the heart of this story, being unwilling to administer euthanasia.