WCR This Week

OTTAWA - Members of the Coalition for HealthCARE and Conscience are taking the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CSPO) to court over its assisted suicide policy.

"The current approach of the CPSO demands that doctors set aside their morals and go against their conscience to directly refer for assisted suicide," Larry Worthen, coalition member and executive director of the Christian Medical and Dental Society of Canada, said in a June 21 news release.

"In our view, effective referral and participating in assisted suicide are morally and ethically the same thing."

The coalition said it is "deeply troubled" the directive in the new federal assisted suicide law that "no one should be compelled to participate in euthanasia" is being ignored in Ontario.

Three physicians' groups that belong to the coalition have launched a judicial review, asking the court whether the CPSO policy is unconstitutional, the release said.