In the House of Commons on Wednesday, MPs voted down a Conservative member’s bill that would have protected the conscience rights of health-care workers unwilling to participate “directly or indirectly” in medical assistance in dying, or MAiD.
Bill C-230, introduced in February by Saskatchewan Conservative MP Kelly Block, aimed to amend the Criminal Code to “make it an offence to intimidate a medical practitioner, nurse practitioner, pharmacist, or other health care professional for the purpose of compelling them to take part, directly or indirectly, in the provision of medical assistance in dying.”
The bill was defeated 208–115 on Oct. 5, with the majority of Conservatives, including leader Pierre Poilievre, voting in favour and the Liberals and most NDP and Bloc Québécois MPs voting against.
Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman, who is one of the party’s deputy leaders, had
no recorded vote on the House of Commons website, along with several other Conservative MPs.
In a previous
statement, Block said Bill C-230 was a necessary safeguard against Bill C-7, which widely broadens availability of MAiD in Canada, even extending it to individuals whose sole medical condition is mental illness.
“With Bill C-7, patients are at risk of being pressured to receive a medically assisted death and doctors are being pressured to be complicit in deaths that they would not advise,” Block said.
The government has reiterated that C-7, which permits MAiD “for individuals whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable,” would not infringe on health-care workers’ freedom of conscience and religion.
“As with the existing law, nothing in the Bill compels healthcare providers to provide such assistance or otherwise interferes with their freedom of conscience and religion rights under section 2(a) of the Charter,” reads a justice department
explanation of the bill.
However, the online document also says since Bill C-7 greatly widens the availability of MAiD, “it would lead to requests for medical assistance in dying in circumstances that may be contrary to some health care providers’ conscience or religious beliefs.”
Since MAiD was legalized in 2016, the
number of assisted suicides across the country has risen every year.
According to Health Canada’s
third annual report on MAiD, over 31,000 Canadians have received medically assisted death between 2016 and 2021.
The Canadian Press contributed to this report.
