You went into medicine to be a healer and not a killer? Tough! Thou shalt kill.
Those are not the exact words, but they are certainly the gist of what Quebec’s Minister of Health is threatening in the face of a palliative care center declaring it would not euthanize patients. From the CTV News story:
Terminally ill patients in Quebec who seek medical aid in dying must be provided with the service even if some doctors are against it, Quebec’s health minister said Wednesday
Gaetan Barrette called out uncooperative doctors and directors of institutions in the province’s health care network Wednesday after a palliative care unit in Montreal announced it wouldn’t offer the service. Quebec’s right-to-die law comes into effect on Dec. 10 and Barrette says the patient will be the priority. “The role of (medical) institutions is to offer the service,” he said. “And it will be offered.”
But Quebec radically changed that role. And now it seeks to impose a duty to kill on doctors, under the threat of medical martyrdom.
Requiring anyone to commit homicide who has not joined the military or police is a profound violation of human rights. I hope there is an international court or tribunal to which dissenting MDs in Quebec can appeal their being dragooned into the euthanasia squad.
Image: Parliament Building, Quebec City, by Christophe.Finot (Own work) [CC BY-SA 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons.
