Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Sep 7, 2022 / 18:00 pm
A federal district court ruled Sept. 2 that California — temporarily — cannot force medical professionals to participate in assisted suicide against their conscience.
The U.S. District Court for the Central District of California granted a preliminary injunction in Christian Medical & Dental Associations v. Bonta, prohibiting California officials from enforcing a provision “which requires a health care provider who is unable or unwilling to participate to ‘document the individual’s date of request and provider’s notice to the individual of their objection in the medical record.’”
Documenting a patient’s request for assisted suicide would fulfill the first of two oral requests required for a patient to undergo assisted suicide in that state.
“The court also clarified that the law doesn’t require [medical professionals] to refer for assisted suicide, or to provide information about it because that would violate their medical ethics and religious convictions,” Kevin Theriot, senior counsel for the faith-based legal organization Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), told CNA.