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OTTAWA, March 2, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — Ottawa’s largest palliative care hospital, the Catholic Bruyère Continuing Care Centre, says it will neither euthanize nor assist its patients to commit suicide when those options become legally available June 6.

Bruyère’s vice-president of public affairs and planning, Amy Porteous, told the Ottawa Citizen that the hospital is “waiting for clarification” on the protocol for transferring patients who request euthanasia or assisted suicide after that date.

Bruyère is among 21 Catholic health care institutions administered by the Catholic Health Sponsors of Ontario.

Other institutions under CHSO’s oversight include Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital and Providence Centre, the Pembroke Regional Hospital, Penetanguishene’s Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care, and Sudbury’s St. Joseph’s Continuing Care Centre.

The CHSO issued a statement in December 2015 acknowledging the Supreme Court’s February Carter decision legalizing euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, which takes effect June 6.

In keeping with its Catholic mission and values, “we will not provide the medical service of physician assisted death in our institutions nor will we directly or explicitly refer a patient to receive this same medical procedure,” it stated.

But CHSO’s statement is now being scrutinized in the light of the parliamentary committee’s February 25 report, which recommended that publicly funded health care institutions be forced to provide euthanasia and assisted suicide.

The Liberal-dominated committee also recommended that physicians opposed to euthanasia and assisted suicide be required to refer patients to a doctor who is willing to kill them, what is termed an “effective” referral.

The committee was tasked with providing the federal government with a framework for a new law on euthanasia and assisted suicide, but its report has been widely condemned as proposing an extreme euthanasia regime.

Whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals incorporate the committee’s recommendations into law remains to be seen. Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Rabould has said cabinet will be looking at the report but that “it will take time” to craft a law.

But the Ottawa Citizen’s Elizabeth Payne makes the case that when euthanasia and assisted suicide are legal, the Catholic Bruyère Centre, which has the city’s only hospital-based and its largest palliative care ward and “most specialized expertise,” may find itself “a local pressure point.”

In a February 29 article, Payne quoted Dying With Dignity Canada’s CEO Shanaaz Gokool, who contended that “publicly funded institutions, including Catholic hospitals, hospices and health authorities need to respect Canadians’ charter rights for assisted death if the person meets the eligibility criteria.”

“We see this to be one of the most critical issues around access,” Gokool stated. “And for some people, it may be where the rubber hits the road.”

Bruyère’s Porteous confirmed with Payne that the Catholic institution will not kill its patients, and that the hospital is “waiting for clarification” on its policy regarding patient transfer.

“We need to monitor and conform to regulatory demands as they take shape,” she said.

Ontario physicians opposed to euthanasia and assisted suicide must also contend with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario’s controversial policy, ratified this January, that objecting physicians must give patients an effective referral.

But the CHSO’s December statement “insists” that any directives resulting from the Supreme Court decision respect Ontario’s Local Health System Integration Act, which ensures that “a religious organization is not required to provide a service that is contrary to its mission and values.”

“We will protect the conscience rights of our staff members and physicians not to place any vulnerable person at risk,” the CHSO stated.

It also insisted that future regulations “include a protocol for safe transfer of care when a person, after receiving relevant information to support the process of informed consent, chooses to receive care elsewhere.”

Payne contacted the CHSO-administered Pembroke Hospital, which, she noted, is the only one in town.

“No one from the hospital was available to comment on whether it would offer the procedure in its hospital,” she wrote. “If not, it was not clear what the options would be for patients to be referred elsewhere.”

But according to Christian Elia of the Catholic Civil Rights League, “It’s very simple.”

“Catholic hospitals can never participate in an intrinsically evil act. They cannot be forced,” he told LifeSiteNews in an earlier interview. “This can never be carried out, and they can expect a fight to the bitter end.”

Canada’s Catholic bishops, the Coalition for HeathCARE and Conscience, the Catholic Civil Rights League, the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, five Conservative MPs including four on the committee itself, and the Canadian Medical Association have all criticized the committee’s recommendations.

The bishops have asked Canadians to tell their elected officials that euthanasia and assisted suicide are “completely unacceptable.”

And political commentator Andrew Coyne is among pundits who have expressed dismay at the report, as is the Postmedia Network, which issued an editorial stating the justice minister is “right to proceed with caution,” as the committee “has done her no favours” and its report “goes too far.”