Assisted dying causing issues for Catholics in health-care system, says theologist

The executive director of the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute was in P.E.I. Thursday to deliver a talk on assisted dying, and how it affects Catholics.

Moira McQueen, a lawyer and theologist, said Catholic teachings are clear, church members are not allowed to end a life.

New assisted-dying regulations are being drafted by Parliament and by each individual province, in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling permitting assisted dying.

McQueen said while the regulations provide a way for Catholics in the health-care system to decline to be involved in an assisted death, some of the provincial regulations being drafted have language that still makes them a part of it.

"The way the regulations are framed is that it looks as if the person is not being forced to actually perform the procedure, but there is a rider in many of the regulations saying they must refer to someone else who will," she said. "And this is also a conscience issue."

P.E.I. is waiting for Ottawa to draft its regulations before bringing in the provincial ones.

Until that time, it will defer to the policy developed by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Prince Edward Island, and requests will be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

The college states that a doctor who declines to provide physician-assisted dying must disclose that fact to the patient, and provide medical care until no longer required or wanted, or until another physician has assumed responsibility for the patient.

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