guidance
The document sets out and describes the criteria for physician-assisted death set out by
the Supreme Court of Canada in Carter. In accordance with this criteria, the patient must:
1. Be a competent adult;
2. Clearly consent to the termination of life;
3. Have a grievous and irremediable
medical condition (including an illness,
however, that any legislative or regulatory
response would have to reconcile patient and
physician rights.
The College’s general position on conscientious objection is set out in our Professional
Obligations and Human Rights policy. The
policy indicates that physicians do not have
to provide a service to which they conscientiously object, but they do have a continuing positive obligation to their patients
including: providing information about the
intervention to which they object; providing an effective referral, in a timely manner,
to a non-objecting, available and accessible
health-care provider; and treating the patient
with dignity and respect.
Council determined that in the absence
of a framework to govern the provision of
physician-assisted death, physicians should
comply with the expectations for conscientious objection set out in the Professional
Obligations policy.
In arriving at this position, Council considered carefully the perspective of physicians who may object to physician-assisted
death, and the perspective of patients who
may wish to access physician-assisted death.
Council also considered the following:
e professional obligations physicians
Th
owe to patients, including the fiduciary
duty to prioritize patient interests; and
The fact that in the Carter decision, the
22
disease or disability); and
4. Experience enduring suffering that is
intolerable to the individual in the
circumstances of his/her condition.
SCC considered access to physicianassisted death in the context of the rights
to life, liberty and security of the person,
protected under section 7 of the Charter
of Rights and Freedoms. The Court concluded that depriving individuals of access
to ph