By Brandon Showalter ,
CP Reporter |
Doctors from a Toronto children’s hospital recently published policies on physician-assisted suicide for children, revealing that in some cases, parents won’t be notified until after the child has died.
“Usually, the family is intimately involved in this (end-of-life) decision-making process. If, however, a capable patient explicitly indicates that they do not want their family members involved in their decision-making, although health care providers may encourage the patient to reconsider and involve their family, ultimately the wishes of capable patients with respect to confidentiality must be respected,” said pediatric doctors at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, administrators and ethicists in a Sept. 21 paper published in the British Medical Journal’s J Medical Ethics.
“The article appears just three months before the Canadian Council of Academies is due to report to Parliament on the medical consensus about extending voluntary euthanasia in circumstances currently forbidden by law,” Crux reported. “The Canadian Council of Academies is specifically looking at extending so-called assisted dying to patients under 18 …”
Read More HERE
