This letter relates to the recent news story of a doctor at a Calgary medical centre refusing to prescribe birth control pills. I think it raises questions concerning the role of physicians in public health care.
According to the June 28 CTV news article, Alberta doctors can refuse a service as long as they state it clearly and promptly and can refer the patient to an alternate service provider. This policy makes sense from a medical perspective. Doctors are highly educated in their medical field and should be expected to bring their professional training and experience to bear on each patient situation.
However, they should not be able to use their position to promote their own religious views. Although her patients could go to another physician to get birth control, why should they have to? Health care is funded by public tax dollars and birth control has been legal in Canada since 1969.
Any moral decisions related to birth control pills belong to the patient and not the doctor.
Jan Yakymyshyn, St. Albert
