Saskatoon region assisted dying policy allows faith based facilities to opt out (Sask-Assisted-Death) – CP

Source: The Canadian Press
Dec 8, 2016 10:06

SASKATOON _ Saskatchewan’s largest health region has approved a physician-assisted dying policy that allows 12 faith-based facilities to opt out.

The Saskatoon Health Region’s board passed the policy on Wednesday, which provides guidelines on medically-assisted dying and on how facilities should handle patient requests.

The policy allows facilities such as St. Paul’s Catholic Hospital to object to the practice.

Patients in the 12 faith-based facilities who want to request physician-assisted dying would be relocated to another facility.

Evert Van Olst, a lawyer with the health region, says the policy strikes a balance between individual rights and respecting individual and institutional conscientious objections.

The publicly funded Saskatoon Health Region serves about 350,000 people in more than 100 communities and has a budget of about $1.2 billion. (CTV Saskatoon, The Canadian Press)

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