Laying down the Lawton - Andrew Lawton A rookie Alberta MLA is taking a stand for healthcare practitioners’ conscience rights. The organization that’s supposed to be standing up for the rights of doctors is, bizarrely, fighting him on it. Dan Williams, a United Conservative Party MLA for Peace River, introduced a private member’s bill in early November that would amend [...]
Dr. Ellen van der Hoeven Dr. Ellen van der Hoeven, passed away at the age of 89 at Kingston General Hospital on March 1, 2019, after a brief illness. Ellen was born in England but raised in Dublin Ireland where she completed her primary degree in medicine at University College Dublin. She immigrated to Canada and met and married military [...]
Christian doctors opposed to assisted suicide or euthanasia must refer suicidal patients to doctors willing to kill them under a controversial policy ratified Jan. 26 by the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons’ governing council. One critic calls the decision a “rubber stamp” while a spokesman for Christian and other pro-life doctors says his clients will sue the College for violating doctors’ [...]
Three physicians groups have submitted their concerns to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Saskatchewan about its conscientious objection policy which they say would force some doctors to choose between their livelihood and violating their conscience if the policy is implemented without changes. The Christian Medical and Dental Society, Canadian Physicians for Life, and the Canadian Federation of Catholic Physicians’ Societies, [...]
On March 6, the ruling council of the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons voted 21-3 for a new Professional Obligations and Human Rights policy that could require doctors in the province to commit abortion or euthanasia. The new policy, announced in a press release, “requires physicians to provide their patients with an effective referral to another health-care provider for those services [...]
The deadline has closed and the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons now has some 1,800 submissions to peruse as it reviews its 2008 policy on the conflict between doctors’ conscience rights and patients’ rights to service. “We’ve got medical groups and religious groups and women’s groups,” says OCPS media relations officer Prithi Yelaja. The college, she says, has given itself till [...]
Three family doctors at an Ottawa health clinic are being criticized for refusing to prescribe birth control to their patients. The controversy started when Kate D. went to CareMedics Elmvale Acres walk-in clinic to get a prescription. She was surprised when the receptionist handed her a letter by the attending physician, Dr. Edmond Kyrillos, stating that he only provides Natural Family Planning [...]
Media gets story wrong about conscience, misses need for informed consent On Feb. 4, the Saskatchewan College of Physicians and Surgeons released revised guidelines for dealing with patients who face an unplanned pregnancy. The early media reports erroneously stated that doctors who refused to carry out an abortion had to refer them to one who would. The Saskatoon Star-Phoenix reported [...]
Pro-life physicians in Ontario should beware: The Ontario Human Rights Commission has served notice that any physician who refuses to perform an abortion could be charged with violating the ban on discrimination on the basis of sex in section 1 of the Ontario Human Rights Code. Section 2(a) of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees “freedom of conscience [...]
Medical students attend Physicans for Life event in Toronto Canadian Physicians for Life recently sponsored 56 medical students and interns to attend the organization’s fourth pro-life forum in five years. The students, representing 11 Canadian universities, came to Toronto for the three-day event, held in conjunction with the International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide that was hosted by the Euthanasia Prevention [...]
By Linda Wegner The Interim In June, pharmacists from across Canada gathered in Saskatoon for their annual convention. Maria Bezecki and Mike Izzoti, both pharmacists active in the pro-life movement, travelled to the event with serious concerns about the erosion of their professional right to refuse to dispense drugs based on their freedom of conscience and religion. Nothing happened to alleviate those [...]
Who gets the last word? New ideas about euthanasia ($10, Canadian Physicians for Life 10150 Gillanders Rd Chilliwack BC V2P 6H4 tel. (604) 794-3772, fax (604) 794-3960, e-mail: info@physiciansfor life.ca) Review by Alex Schadenberg The Interim Canadian Physicians for Life have produced a timely 23-minute video to explain what euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are and to dispel the myths surrounding these issues. [...]
Pharmacists for Life International is disputing mainstream media reports of “safe and quick” home abortion techniques using drugs already available for other uses. The reports say an American researcher has discovered that a combination of methotrexate (a drug used in chemotherapy) and misoprostol (a gastr-intestinal medicine) can induce abortions in 96 per cent of women during their first nine weeks of pregnancy. [...]
You probably won’t find many physicians who, for eleven years, can picket a hospital they work in and get away with it. The 63-year-old family physician has been pounding the pavement with a “Justice for the Unborn” sign in front of Henderson Hospital in Hamilton, Ont. every Friday morning for just that long. His work is a response to the fact that [...]
Not just another protest organization says president Jim Garrow At a time when the traditional family structure is under greater attack than ever, a new national organization has arisen to come to its defence. The national Parents Coalition of Canada was launched at the beginning of July by Jim Garrow of Guelph, Ont., who says he intends to keep the organization from [...]