With last week’s decision by the Supreme Court of Canada to strike down the laws against physician assisted suicide, once more the issue of physician conscience rights is to the fore. In a meeting on Sunday 8th February of the Toronto Catholic Doctor’s Guild, the Civil Rights League and the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute I listened to a number of speakers expressing their concern about the future of medical and particularly family practice in the light of this judgement.

I was reminded of a film I saw many years ago in my last year at school. It was the film ‘Chariots of Fire’ telling the story of a Scot Eric Liddell who would not contravene his conscience and run an Olympic qualifying heat on a Sunday as this was contrary to his own religious belief to keep the Sabbath holy.

I remembered the pressure put upon him to change his mind and the accusation of arrogance hurled at him to which he replied:  “My arrogance extends just as far as my conscience demands.” Most striking to me was the response of a member of the UK Olympic Committee when a solution had been achieved which meant that Eric was to run in another race on another day. One member commented. “He (Liddell) almost had us beat” and the other member responded “He did and Thank God he did, for we sought to separate him from himself. He (Liddell) is a true person of principle and a true athlete his running is a true extension of his life, its force. We sought to sever his running from his self, no cause is worth that.”

           We might say the same about the pressure on medical professionals with regard to conscience rights. It seeks to sever a medical doctor from their own self their intrinsic beliefs and no cause is worth that. Indeed we impede the professional relationship of doctor and patient when we even try to do so.

It is salutary to remember that Scotland applauded the principled stance of Eric Liddell and rejoiced in the gold medal he won for the substitute race in which he ran. Later all Scotland mourned when he died in occupied China at the end of World War II.