Vancouver doctor cleared after providing MAiD in nursing home that forbids it

Vancouver - The Globe and Mail reported Aug. 7 that the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia has dismissed an official complaint against Dr. Ellen Wiebe after she helped Barry Hyman, 83, die inside an Orthodox Jewish nursing home that forbids assisted death.It was Dr. Wiebe who shared the July 5, 2019 letter from the college clearing her with the advocacy group Dying with Dignity Canada and the Globe and Mail. “The committee determined that it was not critical of Dr. Wiebe’s provision of MAiD to the patient at Louis Brier (the nursing home), noting that the patient had consented and that Dr. Wiebe had met all requirements for provision of MAiD,” the college’s inquiry committee concluded.“It was what I expected,” Dr. Wiebe told the newspaper. “I had done the right thing and I trust our college of physicians to recognize that.”David Keselman, the chief executive officer of Louis Brier, told the newspaper that it was upsetting to learn afterward that a doctor had snuck into the nursing home without the staff’s permission. “We have quite a number of Holocaust survivors in the building. This is a huge concern … as this came out, it created a very significant level of anxiety and chaos, specifically for those individuals," Keselman told the Globe & Mail.The college "decision is believed to mark the first time that a medical regulator has weighed in on the thorny question of whether doctors could be professionally punished for defying the wishes of a faith-based health-care facility in order to fulfill those of a patient eligible for a medically assisted death," the newspaper wrote.

Vancouver doctor cleared after providing MAiD in nursing home that forbids it

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