The new policy: if the college thinks it impacts patient "health or well-being" a doctor must deliver a medical procedure that the doctor thinks is morally wrong or the doctor could lose the license to practice medicine.
So a doctor must disregard what they understand to be right and wrong in order to be a doctor in Saskatchewan.
OK, I get that this policy and this issue is mostly about abortion and now assisted suicide, and mostly about Christian doctors I presume. (My clinic could be totally Muslim for all I know.)
But I can't help but think that this humble line of policy is much larger than the hot topics.
Within the last hundred years in this province also considered the policy that the mentally ill and disabled should be forcibly and unknowingly sterilized as "unfit" to reproduce and taint the gene pool. It was policy in Alberta for more than 40 years. Who did this procedure? Doctors. Did all doctors think it was moral to do this? Probably not.
But what if all the doctors who refused to participate had been fired? Who would have been left?
Do you want your doctor to violate his or her conscience in order to keep their job?
When are they supposed to do the right thing, such as reporting malpractice, even if it could cost them their job?
This line of policy is not wise . It is intended to improve care but will erode it.
Tell the college TODAY to take it back:
Every patient has the right to a doctor who will refuse to do the wrong thing.