The Refusal to Provide Health Care in Canada : A Look at “Conscientious Objection” Policies in Canadian Health Care

Please see the Appendix: Canadian Policies and Laws on “Conscientious Objection” in Health Care,1 which describes, quotes, and critiques the policies of the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) and each College of Physicians and Surgeons across Canada as they relate to the refusal to treat and obligation to refer, in particular for abortion care, but also medical assistance in dying (MAiD). [...] Lack of Enforcement Physicians who refuse to provide treatment or make a required referral due to their personal beliefs are not monitored and rarely disciplined because there is no means to do so except through patient complaints to the provincial Colleges. [...] The harms of belief-based treatment refusals have been extensively documented.9 The denial of legal and necessary care is a violation of patients’ right to health care and moral autonomy. [...] (Note: Solutions to the problem do not involve “forcing” doctors to do abortions or MAiD.) Another possible option is to set up a centralized referral agency that people can contact to get a direct referral to a provider in their region. [...] But the very idea of a doctor refusing to provide health care is antithetical to the purpose of medicine – to care for others.