introducing
Q&A
Q. Physicians will be very curious to
know how the College is addressing
the Rasouli case. What was the working group’s approach in addressing this
contentious issue?
A. The Rasouli case made it clear that if
a physician in Ontario believes that the
substitute decision-maker is not acting in
accordance with the patient’s known wishes
or in the best interests of the patient, then
they must apply to the Consent and Capacity Board for a review of the substitute
decision-maker’s decision. Physicians cannot
withdraw life sustaining treatment without
consent. I think that is the takeaway message, although it is a very complex issue.
“I ’d like to encourage more women to run for
Council in the coming years”
Q. Recently the Supreme Court of
Canada was asked to allow terminally
ill Canadians the right to a physicianassisted death. Will the working group
be following the outcome of the Carter
decision very closely?
A. At the moment, it is not lawful to assist
someone in ending his or her life. If the government changes the law, then the policy will
have to change, so we are following various
developments across Canada. At this point,
we are consulting on the revised policy and
are looking for feedback from all stakeholders.
Q. There were observations from the
profession that women were underrepresented in the most recent election
to Council. You were, of course, the only
female candidate in either district. What
needs to happen for more female physicians to participate as Council members?
54
Dialogue Issue 4, 2014
A. That’s an interesting question, and one
that has been on my mind for the last few
years. I am not sure, but I suspect that it
may be partly due to a perception that a large
time commitment is needed. One of my goals
this year is to talk to other female physicians
during CPSO events and find out why there
is a reluctance to participate on Council. We
do have quite a few female public members
of Council, there are many female committee
members and peer assessors, and the majority
of CPSO staff is female, but female physicians
do seem to be underrepresented on Council.
I’d like to encourage more women to run for
Council in the coming years.
Q. Between the demands of the College
and your medical practice, you probably don’t have a lot of “down” time.
What do you do to relax and re-charge?
A. I have to admit that a lot of my time
on nights and weekends has been spent on
my laptop reading ICRC cases! But I also
spend time with my husband (who is a high
school science teacher), my three children
(who are all in post-secondary programs
right now) and my two cats. We have a
property in the country so there is a little
gardening to be done, and in the summer
we have a long-time family cottage. This
year we’ve started a volcano ]Y\