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Alberta bishops call euthanasia ‘state-sponsored killing’

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[Calgary bishop Frederick Henry/CBC News]

As the expiration of Canada’s laws against physician-assisted death moves closer, a group of Catholic bishops in Alberta has come out strongly against the change.

The letter from the bishops, which calls physician-assisted death “morally wrong” and “state-sponsored killing,” marks the latest public expression of dismay or support as the country prepares to shelve the law that makes euthanasia illegal.

Canada’s current laws banning physician-assisted death will expire in June, after the Supreme Court of Canada granted the federal government a four-month extension on Jan. 15.

“When any life can be taken at will, the dignity of all lives is seriously eroded and respect for human lives in our society as a whole is diminished,” reads the letter, which was released on Thursday and signed by six bishops from across the province.

“Too bad today’s Calgary Herald reads ‘Stop Taxing the Sick.’ It would have been much better if they had written ‘Stop Killing the Sick,’” Calgary bishop Frederick Henry tells Yahoo Canada News in reference to the paper’s editorial about hospital parking fees. “The parking fees are an annoyance, but killing people is not medicine.”

The bishops’ position actually counters that of average Canadians, including Roman Catholics, Wanda Morris, CEO of advocacy group Dying With Dignity, tells Yahoo Canada News.

An Ipsos poll conducted for Dying With Dignity and released Thursday found that 83 per cent of respondents who identified as Roman Catholic supported the Supreme Court’s decision affirming the right to physician-assisted death. That’s compared to the 85 per cent who support the decision overall.

“My first reaction is that they are not speaking for their membership,” Morris says. “It certainly does illustrate how out of touch they are with the people in the pews.”

The letter from the bishops also says that the rights of doctors with a conscientious objection to euthanasia should be protected, allowing physicians to both refuse to assist a patient in dying and to provide a referral to a doctor who is not opposed to the practice.

The College of Physicians & Surgeons of Alberta recently released an advice document to its members stating that physicians can decline to provide physician-assisted death if it goes against their conscience, which is in line with the Supreme Court decision. The college’s mandate also tells doctors they cannot abandon patients who make requests for assisted death because of their own objections, and must refer those patients to other resources including another physician.

“The Supreme Court specifically said that nothing in this decision compels a physician to provide assisted dying,” says Morris, who added that Dying With Dignity supports that. “But the health care system exists first and foremost for patients, and a physician cannot block a patient’s Charter right to an assisted death.“

One possible solution to the dilemma of physicians who oppose doctor-assisted death on conscience is the approach taken in Quebec, Morris says. Doctors who do not want to provide assisted death can inform their institutions, and then the institution itself can refer care elsewhere if needed.

“I really can’t see a physician objecting to that,” Morris says. “But if these institutions don’t step forward, then we don’t think doctors can have a free pass here.”

The issue of how institutions will handle physician-assisted death is expected to be one of the key considerations of Parliament’s special joint committee on physician-assisted dying, which is expected to deliver its report on Feb. 26.