I’ve been saying it for years, the mindset of the crazy religious fanatics in the US is expanding here and not in Canada’s bible province of Alberta but in our nation’s capital…
Consider the case of 25-year-old Kate Desjardins, which has been making waves on the web since February. That’s when she disclosed how a doctor at an Ottawa walk-in clinic refused to renew her two-year-old birth control prescription.
The written explanation from Dr. Edmond Kyrillos, handed to her in the waiting room as others looked on, only added insult to injury:
“Please be advised that because of reasons of my own medical judgment as well as professional ethical concerns and religious values, I only provide one form of birth control, Natural Family Planning”
If a doctor is so antediluvian as to be anti-contraception, he’d best transition from medical to pastoral work. Playing God isn’t in the job description of physicians.
Doctors don’t deserve special dispensation to discriminate, any more than a pharmacist who refused to fill a prescription for birth control pills. That’s why the College of Physicians and Surgeons must safeguard the public interest this time, not acquiesce yet again to vested interests at the OMA as in 2008.
If the college fails to reassert itself as a self-governing authority, let the provincial government step in to defend patient rights under the Ontario Human Rights Code. Queen’s Park could do that by de-delegating the college’s authority and re-regulating medicine on our behalf.
Source: Toronto Star
For me it’s very simple… It’s not ok for a public servant (or anyone really) to push their religious beliefs onto others and their rights extend as far as not imposing on anyone else’s rights. I hope this doctor gets fired.