The Saskatoon Health Region (SHR) has approved a physician-assisted dying policy that will allow 12 faith-based facilities to opt out.
The SHR’s board passed the policy on Wednesday, which provides guidelines on medically-assisted dying and on how facilities should handle patient requests.
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It will allow facilities such as St. Paul’s Catholic Hospital to object to the practice.
Patients in the 12 faith-based facilities who want to request physician-assisted dying would be relocated to another facility.
Evert Van Olst, a lawyer with the health region, says the policy strikes a balance between individual rights and respecting individual and institutional conscientious objections.
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The SHR serves around 350,000 people in more than 100 communities and has a budget of about $1.2 billion.