Physician assisted death–right not to refer?

Have you heard a physician say, “I prefer not to refer.”

Physician assisted death is marching forward.  If the Supreme Court, in the next short while, rules in favour of assisted death, a patient may initiate the process. 

However, an online Canadian Medical Association (CMA) member survey (1407 responses) presented at the  CMA General Council in Halifax on August 25, 2015, showed that 63% of members polled would refuse outright to assist in a patient’s death.

This is not an insignificant number.  The Canadian Medical Association had been considering recommending for statutory and regulatory  frameworks that those physicians not wishing to participate in assisted death must refer their patients to someone who would. 

Regardless of whether this would violate the conscience of the physician.

The Canadian Medical Association certainly received feedback from their members, and has updated the recommendation.  While allowing for assisted death, they no longer suggest that physicians must refer patients for death.

The January 2016 paper on the CMA site – Principles Based Recommendations for a Canadian Approach to Dying – provides in their recommendations, in section 5.2: Conscientious Objection by a Physician, the following statement:

Physicians are not obligated to fulfill requests for assisted dying. This means that physicians who choose not to provide or participate in assisted dying are not required to provide it or to participate in it or to refer the patient to a physician or a medical administrator who will provide assisted dying to the patient. There should be no discrimination against a physician who chooses not to provide or participate in assisted dying.

A small victory for conscientious objectors, but I suspect they have more battles yet to fight.