We want doctors exercising their professional judgment, in line with their conscience. But some believe that professional judgment should take second place to political pressure. Bill 207 may not have enough support to pass because of the political pressure around access to services like abortion and euthanasia. Your MLA needs to hear that you support the right of doctors to practice medicine in accordance with their conscience. Call, email or visit them today!

We all have the Charter protected right to freedom of conscience, but it is becoming essential for healthcare professionals to have more explicit protection. They need to feel free from undue pressure on issues that have a politically charged nature. We don’t want them prescribing unnecessary pain medication that their patient is addicted to. We don’t want them referring for an abortion that they assess a woman is being emotionally coerced into, or offering euthanasia to a depressed elderly person. We also don’t want to force health care providers to provide or refer for these services they may be morally opposed to. This conscience protection bill aims to reinforce the professional freedom of conscience for health care providers, and should be supported.

Health care providers have professional obligations. These include respect for patients and ensuring patient care and safety is the highest priority. It also includes taking responsibility for their own behavior and ethical conduct regardless of the circumstances. This includes ensuring that no patient is abandoned. The conscience protection in this bill does not change these obligations. It means only that a health care provider may need to provide accurate information about a patient’s options, but does not need to provide or facilitate a service that he or she conscientiously objects to.

We are all better off with health care providers who have the freedom to work according to their conscience. Your MLA needs to hear this. If you live in Alberta, send a SimpleMail today and consider giving your MLA a call to let them know how important this issue is to you.

Kate Desjardins, a 25-year-old from Ottawa entered a walk-in clinic earlier this year to have her birth control prescription renewed. Except this was not a routine visit, as Ms. Desjardins quickly found out that the doctor on duty did not prescribe contraceptives.

These two experiences have resulted in a renewed debate over conscience protection for doctors.

Dr. Margaret Somerville, Director of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law debates Arthur Schafer, director of the Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics at the University of Manitoba on the question, “Should doctors have the right to refuse to prescribe birth control because of their religious beliefs?”  The question should really be, “Should patients have the right to a medical procedure from any physician of their choosing?”

Anyway, Dr. Somerville does a remarkable job at focusing the debate and responds very well to Mr. Schafer in the radio debate. Here is one statement,

“We have a right to freedom of conscience and freedom of belief, and for a physician who believes that contraception is unethical and not morally acceptable, and possibly has religious beliefs or those beliefs might be grounded in his religion or they might not be, than if he prescribes contraceptions than he’s complicit in the action he believes is unethical and immoral.”

You can listen to the thirteen minute interview here.