Hospitals founded by sisters refuse to kill their patients

Institutions will not ‘directly or explicitly refer a patient to receive this same medical procedure’

The Catholic Register
TORONTO (CCN)

The parliamentary committee report on legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide may want “all publicly funded health care institutions (to) provide medical assistance in dying,” but Ontario Catholic hospitals, nursing homes, and health centres aren’t having it.

“We reject any medical procedures that would intentionally terminate a human life,” the Catholic Health Sponsors of Ontario declared in December, two months before a parliamentary committee recommended sweeping new laws to permit broad access to assisted suicide and euthanasia.

Nor will any of the Catholic Health Sponsors’ institutions “directly or explicitly refer a patient to receive this same medical procedure.”

The Catholic Health Sponsors Council represents 25 institutions in Ontario that were founded by seven orders of religious sisters. Collectively their annual budget is $1.75 billion, they work with more than 1,700 doctors, and have nearly 20,000 employees.

The parliamentary committee’s recommendations make no difference in the Catholic stand on putting patients to death, according to Providence Healthcare spokeswoman Beth Johnson. Providence, established in 1857 by the Sisters of St. Joseph, is one of the member institutions of the Catholic Health Sponsors of Ontario.

“We will not offer physician-assisted death at Providence,” wrote Johnson in an e-mail to The Catholic Register.

According to the Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association, palliative care exists “to relieve suffering and improve the quality of living and dying.”

Ontario’s 2006 Local Health System Integration Act specifically ensures religious organizations are not required to provide a service that is contrary to their mission and values. It also guarantees rights of conscience for those who work in health care will be respected.

“Assisted death is morally incompatible with the mission and values of our Catholic health providers,” said the Catholic Health Sponsors. “We will not abandon the person in our care.

“We believe that supporting those patients who are vulnerable with a non-judgmental, non-coercive approach will assist them to question their request for assisted death and to explore alternative forms of medical care.”