Regulation of Belief-Based Care Denial in Canada

Medical Assistance in Dying and Belief-Based Care Denial In 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in Carter v Canada that the criminalization of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) was unconstitutional as it unjustifiably infringed on Section 7 rights to life, liberty, and security of the person under the Charter18. [...] The court said that the criteria restricted access to MAiD to those who were nearing the end of their life, declaring both the “reasonable foreseeability of natural death” criteria in the Criminal Code and the “end-of-life” criteria in Quebec’s provincial MAiD law to be unconstitutional21. [...] Even the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Manitoba asked for amendments to be made to this bill to ensure that vulnerable patients still have access to MAiD, to no avail.32 As noted above, the Supreme Court explicitly stated in Carter that health care workers who do not wish to participate in MAiD for reasons of conscience cannot be forced to participate.33 Additionally, the Criminal Code pro. [...] c) With reference to the option of termination of the pregnancy, the physician should apprise the patient of the availability of abortion services in the province, or elsewhere, in accordance with any current law or regulation governing such services and should ensure that the patient has the information needed to access such services or make the necessary referral. [...] As part of this research, the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada attempted to obtain information on the number of complaints filed with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) about belief-based denial of care and the outcome of those complaints.