We appreciate the opportunity to appear before you this evening.
The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada is a national association of evangelical Christians. We were intervenors in the Rodriguez and Carter cases and have appeared numerous times before parliamentary committees on related issues.
Our affiliates include over 40 denominations comprising 7,000 congregations. Pastors and church members regularly care for people in crisis and those who are nearing death. Some of our denominations have extended care facilities and hospices.
The issue before us is how we as a society respond to the suffering of others. We believe the appropriate response to suffering is care, comfort, and compassion, not the hastening of death. Our belief in and commitment to the sanctity of human life and our calling to care for vulnerable persons animate the care we provide.
It is on this basis that we oppose the decriminalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia, but as the government is proceeding with legislation, we are calling for protection of conscience and religious freedom, for the strictest possible safeguards in order to minimize harm and risk to vulnerable persons, to ensure that occurrences are rare, and to protect our society's commitment to the respect for life.
On the matter of freedom of conscience and religion, the minister, when she appeared on Monday, said that this legislation does not compel medical professionals to participate in MAID. While that is technically correct, the minister also said that MAID is now considered “medically necessary” treatment. This places conscientious-objecting persons and institutions at risk of coercion.
Actually, in looking at it today, someone pointed out to me that proposed subsection 227(4) creates an exemption to section 14, which appears to, at least, delete the caveat of “no person is entitled to”. That seems to create an entitlement “for”.
Our concern is that creating a right establishes a corresponding obligation. If you accept the premise that medical aid in dying is a right, you have an obligation to protect, we submit, the freedoms and rights of doctors and other medical professionals.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, as you've heard, has already decided that all doctors must make effective referrals regardless of conscientious objection. What will this government do to protect medical professionals from being coerced to participate in the killing of another? Even in times of war, conscientious objectors were exempted. Medical practitioners must have the right to refuse to participate in physician-hastened death, either directly or indirectly, for reasons of conscience or deeply held beliefs, including the right not to make a referral.
Also, there has been no commitment made to exempt objecting institutions, thus protecting their staff and the communities that provide care, which we feel is equally important. We recommend that protections be included by express statements in the preamble of the bill. We also strongly recommend that conscience protection be included in the legislation as a stand-alone provision in Bill C-14, or as an amendment to the Canada Health Act, or by creating a Criminal Code offence that prohibits coercion of patients, medical care providers, and institutions in relation to medically assisted dying.
Did you know that the Bank Act forbids a bank from coercing someone to obtain a product or service as a condition of receiving another service, or that it is an offence to coerce someone either to belong or to refuse to belong to an artistic group? We are talking about hastening the death of another in this context. How much more important is it to protect the conscience of medical professionals and institutions?