The conscience of health care providers in the province has become a concerning topic for Chatham-Kent-Essex MPP Rick Nicholls.
The Liberals and NDP recently voted against a bill to protect the conscience rights of health care providers when it comes to assisted dying.
If passed, the bill would have made an amendment to the medical assistance in dying legislation (MAiD).
"I don't have anything against someone who chooses to want to die -- that is their choice," says Nicholls. "But to force a doctor or a healthcare practitioner to be a part of that [either directly or indirectly] when it goes against their values and/or belief systems, then I have a problem."
Nicholls adds he's concerned that the province may lose some of their health care workers as a result of the decision to vote down the bill.
"I would certainly encourage our party to bring forth something that would in fact protect the rights of everyone concerned," he says. "We work hard to bring doctors and health care practitioners into our riding, into our province, and to have them turn around and leave because of some form of legislation that has been passed -- to me is extremely unfair."
Ontario is the only province in Canada to not include conscience rights of health care workers into MAiD.
