The College of Physicians of Ontario has ruled that doctors in the province must provide a referral to a service even if they don't share the same values as the rest of the population when it comes to abortion, assisted suicide, euthanasia, and birth control. The opposition to this ruling comes from three medical groups representing Christian doctors, who argue that doctors should be allowed to stand up for their values.
00:00:00.000The college regulating Ontario doctors thinks that if you want to be a physician in the province you have to leave your morals your beliefs and your religious values at the door.
00:00:11.000That's the crux of a decision that was fought for by the college and upheld by a court not too long ago saying that family doctors or any physicians really must provide a referral to a service even if they believe that that service is wrong.
00:00:27.000Common examples of this are of course abortion or assisted suicide, euthanasia, in some cases even birth control.
00:00:36.000And remember the question here is not whether these values are in alignment with those of Ontario's but whether medical practitioners, doctors specifically should be allowed to have those values.
00:00:48.000Now no one would argue they shouldn't but why should they be expected to surrender them just because a court tells them to?
00:00:56.000Remember that not providing a service to a patient doesn't infringe on the patient's rights but forcing a doctor to provide a service does in fact infringe on that doctor's rights.
00:01:07.000It's the very real infringement versus the theoretical infringement.
00:01:12.000And this is really being fought right now by three medical groups that represent Christian doctors for example, physicians for life and a few individual doctors that are filing a claim against this ruling.
00:01:25.000Saying that no patients are harmed by their ability to step up and stand up for their values.
00:01:31.000The concerns that were raised by the earlier court are that if a patient is told by one doctor that they can't get a referral to another service that they might not be able to find another doctor to provide that service.
00:01:44.000But as is noted in the claim filed by these three medical groups, this is not a real problem.
00:01:51.000It's not something that's been provided alongside any evidence and there's no indication that any patient has actually been in that situation in the first place.
00:02:00.000But still there's a lot of resistance to doctors who have these values.
00:02:04.000The belief is that they should be expected to just shut up and provide the service on request.
00:02:09.000Except doctors are not supposed to be a mall catalog where patients can go in and point to things on a list and say I'd like that, that, that.
00:02:17.000Doctors are there to provide what they believe is in the best interest of the patients.
00:02:21.000Now, if they're providing this based on their own religious values rather than based on medical advice, if those two are in conflict, they have a duty to be transparent about that.
00:02:32.000Patients have the right to go elsewhere, but doctors in Ontario don't have the right to practice outside of the College of Physicians.
00:02:40.000They don't have the right to work under, let's say, a Christian College of Physicians that still upholds the same standards but respects for differing value sets.
00:02:50.000And this is one of the big hypocrisies we have is that there are Catholic hospitals that have moral beliefs on abortion and assisted suicide.
00:02:57.000There are religious doctors. There are any number of people in the medical system that are allowed to have their views.
00:03:03.000But the government is now trying to tell them that even if you won't do something, you have to provide a referral, which is a formal referral.
00:03:12.000It's a formal document to someone who will.
00:03:14.000Well, to these physicians, that's no different than providing the service themselves.
00:03:18.000You see, these doctors are fully willing to recommend, to provide information, but referral is not information.
00:03:26.000Referral has a very specific meaning, and that's one of the things that's been lost in a lot of the media's coverage of this case.
00:03:32.000No one should be expected to leave their values at the door when we're not talking about the imminent life of a patient.
00:03:39.000Remember, first, do no harm. That's the very fundamental principle, even if it's not technically part of the oath anymore,
00:03:46.000that guides what many physicians are doing day in, day out for their patients.
00:03:50.000If they believe that something is going to be harmful, even if for spiritual reasons, that would be a violation of their oath.
00:03:57.000And do we want to encourage and actually mandate doctors to surrender their principles?
00:04:03.000Is that what we want from the healthcare system? It certainly shouldn't be.