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Canada: Doctors May Be Forced to Assist Suicide

<p>Over a year ago&comma; the Canadian Supreme Court reversed a decision that upheld a law prohibiting doctor-assisted suicide in Canada&period; The court found that the ban on assisted suicide infringed on individuals&rsquo&semi; rights and therefore should be illegal&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The 2015 ruling in Carter v&period; Canada also made it clear that doctors were under no legal obligation to assist patients with suicide&period; However&comma; they officially asked the professional colleges that govern medical workers to protect rights of conscience&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Despite the court&rsquo&semi;s ruling that doctors should be allowed to say no to performing a service that goes against their own morals or values&comma; some medical professionals are saying that there is &ldquo&semi;no place&rdquo&semi; for the protection of rights of conscience in medicine&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>One article in particular states&comma; &ldquo&semi;It is implausible that professionals who voluntarily join a profession should be endowed with a legal claim not to provide services that are within the scope of the profession&rsquo&semi;s practice and that society expects them to provide&period;&rdquo&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Arguing that doctors should be forced to provide services that they are morally against in order to eliminate sick individuals sounds like something straight out of Hitler&rsquo&semi;s Germany&period; Even a famous medical professional&comma; Dr&period; Leo Alexander&comma; wrote in 1949 that performing these types of services was a slippery slope into medical complicity during the Holocaust&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Opponents to assisted suicide argue that doctors should not become assistant executioners because it crosses a line and poses a huge risk to society as a whole&period; &nbsp&semi;This group of advocates for the protection of rights of conscience finds irony in the fact that the Supreme Court&comma; which is supposed to protect individual liberties&comma; is actually allowing a law like this to pass&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>It will be interesting to see if what happens in Canada will soon slip through the border and influence legislation in the United States&comma; where five states currently permit assisted suicide&period; With Canada&rsquo&semi;s legalization&comma; this number will most likely increase in the near future&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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