Archdiocese of Vancouver joins new eight-member coalition
By Agnieszka Krawczynski
The B.C. Catholic

Caption: Larry Worthen

The Archdiocese of Vancouver has just joined a band of Christian organizations in the fight for conscience rights.

The Coalition for HealthCare and Conscience now includes eight organizations, and represents more than 110 health-care facilities, 60,000 staff, and 5,000 physicians.

“Our health-care workers across Canada are caught between a rock and a hard place,” said Larry Worthen, the executive director of the Christian Medical and Dental Society. His organization is a member of the coalition.

“Their faith tells them they may not participate in assisted suicide or euthanasia, but policies are cropping up” from health authorities and provincial colleges saying they are required do it or refer patients to people who will.

Meanwhile, Bill C-14, the proposed legislation to govern the practice, is in debate on the federal level. It does not offer protection for doctors, nurses, or institutions who refuse to kill their patients or to refer them for the deadly procedure.

Members of the new coalition, formed in January, have held many meetings with politicians, trying to get conscience protections written into law.

“Consider the Civil Marriage Act, passed by parliament in 2005,” Worthen told the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights May 3.

That act contains “a specific clause recognizing that officials of religious groups are free to refuse to perform marriages that are not in accordance with their religious beliefs.”

He hopes similar language can be introduced in Bill C-14 that would allow doctors, nurses, and institutions to freely refuse killing their patients or referring them for assisted suicide or euthanasia without discrimination.

“Our concern is that if they do not respect our conscience rights, Catholic health-care providers would have to choose between their profession and participating” in practices against their moral convictions, Worthen said.

“We are opposed to legalization.” If the government goes ahead with it, “We’re just asking for tolerance of our religious beliefs.”

Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto also spoke to that standing committee May 3. He represented the Archdiocese of Toronto, also a member of the Coalition for HealthCare and Conscience.

“No foreign jurisdiction in the world that has legalized euthanasia or assisted suicide forces health-care workers, hospitals, nursing homes, or hospices to act against their conscience or mission and values,” he said.

“It is essential that the government ensure that effective conscience protection is given to health-care providers, both institutions and individuals.”

Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, and the Archdiocese of Vancouver joined the coalition a few weeks ago. He has also voiced concerns about conscience rights.

“Many health-care workers believe strongly in saving lives and ending suffering, but not in ending lives. Canadians from many ethical traditions just won’t be able to go along with this,” he stated in February.

“Where is the room for them in medical care?”

The Coalition for HealthCare and Conscience is currently focusing on speaking up at parliamentary committees and hearings, and meeting provincial and federal politicians to discuss Bill C-14.

“Essentially our strategy is try to get amendments to the bill that’s before parliament,” said Worthen.

The coalition is also asking members of the public who are concerned about the rights of doctors to write letters to government. They can do this individually, or by signing up on the coalition’s website and receiving updates and tips on how and to whom to write letters.

Worthen said so far 15,000 supporters have signed up and more than 10,000 letters have been sent to politicians this way.

“We believe that, in the long term, society will realize that this is not a respectful way to treat people,” he said.

“People will seek caregivers and institutions that have this ethic, because our whole hearts are dedicated to the protection and support of human life and the amelioration of human suffering.”

More information about the coalition and its members is available at www.canadiansforconscience.ca.