{"id":2222,"date":"2018-07-09T14:17:03","date_gmt":"2018-07-09T14:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eoldev.law.dal.ca\/?page_id=2222"},"modified":"2021-01-02T14:34:21","modified_gmt":"2021-01-02T14:34:21","slug":"disciplinary-proceedings","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/eol.law.dal.ca\/?page_id=2222","title":{"rendered":"College Disciplinary Decisions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Natural death has become reasonably foreseeable<\/strong><\/p>\n

On February 13, 2018, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia (CPSBC) Inquiry Committee issued a Final Disposition Report<\/strong><\/a> on a complaint submitted by the Chief Medical Officer and Coroner, BC Coroners Service, about medical assistance in dying for a Ms. S \u201cto ensure that the eligibility criteria for medical assistance in dying were met.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Inquiry Committee concluded that \u201ca patient cannot be forced to take treatment they do not consider acceptable, i.e., patients seeking medical assistance in dying retain, as do all competent patients, right of refusal. It was determined that Ms. S met the requisite criteria and was indeed eligible for medical assistance in dying, despite the fact that her refusal of medical treatment, food, and water, undoubtedly hastened her death and contributed to its \u2018reasonable foreseeability\u2019.\u00a0Given the above, the Committee agreed that Dr. Wiebe acted in compliance with the College\u2019s standard in all respects.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflections on the significance of this decision are available here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Providing MAiD in an institution that prohibits MAiD<\/strong><\/p>\n

On October 16, 2017, a physician administrator (Dr. Keselman) from the Louis Brier Home and Hospital, an Orthodox Jewish long-term care facility submitted a complaint to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia (CPSBC)<\/a> against Dr. Ellen Wiebe, a medical assistance in dying (MAiD) provider.\u00a0 He alleged, that: \u201cdespite knowing that the organization did not \u2018allow\u2019 MAiD, Dr. Wiebe completed the MAiD procedure on a resident (the \u201cPatient\u201d) of Louis Brier.\u00a0 You [Dr. Keselman] further advised that Dr. Wiebe failed to communicate with nursing staff resulting in inaccurate documentation in the Patient\u2019s chart.\u201d<\/p>\n

On July 5, 2019, the CPSBC sent its decision about the complaint to Drs. Wiebe and Keselman.\u00a0 The Inquiry Committee concluded that Dr. Wiebe had not breached College standards.\u00a0 It found that:<\/p>\n