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Canadian Physicians for Life’s

2007 Medical Students Forum

Preliminary Program*

Friday, Nov. 30 – Sunday, Dec. 2, 2007
Four Points at Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel
Mississauga, Ontario 

NOTE: Sessions hosted by Canadian Physicians for Life and offered exclusively to medical students/residents will be held all day Saturday, Saturday evening, and Sunday morning. We will participate in the International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide all day Friday, including the Friday evening dinner banquet.

Printable version of 2007 Med Students Forum Program (in PDF format )

 

Friday, Nov. 30, daytime sessions (hosted by Euthanasia Prevention Coalition)

According to the EPC, “Nearly every leader and significant speaker on the issues of euthanasia and assisted suicide will be attending this Symposium.”

The International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide is being co-sponsored by:
Euthanasia Prevention Coalition - Canada,; Not Dead Yet – USA; Physicians for Compassionate Care – Oregon; Vermont Alliance for Ethical Health Care – Vermont; Care Not Killing Alliance – UK; No Less Human – UK

Preliminary Program*

9:00 am Registration Opens
9:30 am - 10:00 am: Introduction by leaders of co-sponsoring groups.
10:00 am - 11: 00 am - Dr. Peter Saunders - Care Not Killing Alliance in the UK
11:00 am - 12:00 am - Dr. Bob Orr, Vermont Alliance for Ethical Health Care
12:00 pm - 1:15 pm: lunch talk (Cheryl Eckstein - Compassionate Health Care Network - Canada)
1:15 pm - 2:00 pm - Bert Dorenbos (Netherlands) - Cry for Life
2:00 pm - 3:15 pm - Dr. Bill Toffler, Physicians for Compassionate Care - Assisted Suicide in Oregon
3:15 pm - 3:30 pm - coffee break
3:30 pm - 4:30 pm - Professor Mark Mostert - The Nazi Euthanasia Program
4:30 pm - 5:15 pm - Dr. Paul Byrne - Brain Death
5:15 pm - 5:30 pm - closing remarks

Friday evening banquet – keynote address (hosted by Euthanasia Prevention Coalition)

7:00 p.m. – Dinner banquet / Keynote Speaker – Margaret Somerville,  founding director of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law. Professor Somerville is the author of many internationally recognized books including: The Ethical Imagination and Death Talk. She will present the secular argument against euthanasia and assisted suicide.

 

Saturday, Dec. 1, daytime sessions (hosted by Canadian Physicians for Life)

8:00 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. (includes a continental breakfast, mid-morning and mid-afternoon break, and a cold buffet lunch)

Various speakers will talk to the students about medical, legal, ethical and societal aspects of abortion and reproductive health:

  • Welcome address (Will Johnston, MD, President, Canadian Physicians for Life)
  • Controversial Issues in Reproductive Health (Stephen Genuis,MD, FRCSC, DABOG)
Issues relating to reproductive health provoke much controversy and challenge for medical students and practicing physicians. Health practitioners and trainees often experience ethical distress when they are caught in situations relating to reproductive health when their preferred action may contravene the expectations of authorities and/or patients. This discussion will explore recent medical information regarding the science of sexuality in order to assist individuals in making prudent clinical and ethical decisions.
  • Young Women at Risk: Abortion and Informed Consent (Deborah Zeni, MD, CCFP)
Dr. Zeni, speaking from her experience in the practise of obstetrics and maternal health care, will highlight some of the deVeber Institute’s latest research on the risks for women that are associated with abortions, and about the consequences of uninformed consent. The deVeber Institute has been developing research and scholarship for an informed social response to human life questions for 25 years.
  • In Defence of the Unborn: The Canadian Experience (Ruth A. M. Ross, BA, LLB)
Ruth will review the history of abortion in Canada. She will also provide an overview of Canadian legal cases dealing with abortion and related issues. She will describe how these cases impact upon freedom of religion and conscience. Time permitting, Ruth will also share her own personal story and describe how a band of Christian legal professionals remain faithful in the trenches contending on behalf of their faith.
  • Fetal Pain: The Neurological Imperative to Defend Life (Paul Ranalli, MD, FRCPC)
The fetus is capable of feeling pain by at least 20 weeks gestation, based on current anatomical and physiological evidence, with some support for an earlier capability. The later development, from 28 weeks onward, of the inhibitory pain-modifying system suggests that during a vulnerable developmental period (20-28 weeks), the fetus likely feels pain much more intensely than does a newborn baby. This understanding should augment concern about the inhumanity of late second-trimester abortion.
  • The Memories, Silences, and Restructuring of Women (Larry Reynolds, MD, CCFP, FCFP)

Dr. Reynold’s talk is based on an address he gave to medical students at McGill as a visiting Professor in May of this year. It is based on a pro-life feminist view that sees abortion as one of the many ways cultures seek to reshape women’s bodies, as demanding that women and physicians be willing to sacrifice their intrinsic taboos against killing, and as an environmental catastrophe within the delicate ecosystems of women’s bodies.

Saturday evening working supper (hosted by Canadian Physicians for Life)

7: 00 p.m. – Working Supper / Panel Discussion

CPL speakers as well as some of the speakers from the Euthanasia Symposium will be available to address any remaining questions the students/residents might have regarding abortion, euthanasia, and assisted suicide. A hot supper buffet will be served.

Sunday morning, Dec. 2 (hosted by Canadian Physicians for Life)

8:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. (includes a continental breakfast and mid morning break)

  • The Birth Control Pill and the Sexual Revolution: Past, Present, and Future (Dr. Stephen Genuis)
Many current trends in social behavior and global demographics are rooted to some degree in the sexual liberation movement of the 1960s and 1970s - a movement that was ignited by the release of the birth control pill. This talk will trace some of the major developments leading to the sexual revolution, will assess its impact on the modern world, and will explore recent scientific and medical information on hormonal contraception and family planning. Practical recommendations for clinical practice will be discussed.
  • Closing remarks (Dr. Will Johnston)

 

Speakers at CPL’s 2007 Medical Students Forum:

  • Will Johnston, MD, is a Vancouver family physician practicing a wide spectrum of general practice and obstetrics. He is President of Canadian Physicians for Life, and Co-Chair of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition of BC. He has been active in the physicians’ pro-life movement since 1988, after starting his career indifferent to abortion in 1981. He has been interviewed for TV and radio broadcast many times, including a memorable Newsworld debate with euthanasia practitioner Jack Kevorkian. A good archive of his writing can be found on this website.
  • Stephen Genuis, MD, FRCSC, DABOG, is the author of three books as well as publications in diverse medical journals including the Lancet, British Medical Journal, Canadian Medical Association Journal, Public Health, the American Board of Family Practice, and various others. As well as writing, he lectures extensively and reviews papers for several medical journals on issues ranging from medical ethics to environmental health, from evidence-based medicine to reproductive technology, and from physician professionalism to medicine and cyberspace. He served as the women’s health care physician for an inner city clinic, served as co-director of medical services in a hospital in West Africa, and currently has specialization in both Obstetrics/Gynecology and Environmental Medicine.
  • Deborah Zeni, MD, CCFP, is a family physician from Georgetown, Ontario, who specializes in Obstetrics and Pediatrics. She has won the 2006 Mentorship Award for The Rural Ontario Medicine Program and the 2004 Award of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario for Excellence in Community Medicine. She is a board member for the deVeber Institute and a contributor to the book Women’s Health After Abortion; The Medical and Psychological Evidence.
  • Ruth A. M. Ross, BA, LLB, is the Executive Director and General Legal Counsel for Christian Legal Fellowship (CLF) where she oversees and coordinates court interventions and provides consultations and submissions to government on a wide variety of issues from a Christian perspective, including religious freedom, marriage and family, and sanctity of life. Ruth is a graduate of Dalhousie University and is currently a member of the Ontario Bar. She has lectured for lawyers internationally on freedom of religion and speech issues, defending life and the traditional family. CLF has been involved as intervenor in the Don Spratt (Bubble Zone) Case (2007) before the BC Court of Appeal in contending that sections of the Access to Abortion Services Act infringe on the fundamental freedoms of protesters and people accessing abortion clinics; and as intervenor before the NB Court of Appeal in Morgentaler v. New Brunswick (2005) to defend life and to introduce the evidence of harm against women due to abortions.
  • Paul Ranalli, MD, FRCPC, is a clinical neurologist, and Lecturer in Neurology at the University of Toronto. He writes and consults widely on bioethical issues. He has been a Board member of the Centre for Renewal and Public Policy and the deVeber Institute for Bioethics and Social Research. He has appeared on a wide variety of electronic media, including the CBC, Newsworld, CTV, Global and CNN. His articles have appeared in the Globe and Mail, Hamilton Spectator, Chicago Tribune, and the Philadelphia Enquirer. He is a regular contributor to Vital Signs and the Washington-based National Right to Life (NRL) News. In 1991 he appeared with Canadian Physicians for Life before the House of Commons Committee studying abortion Bill C-43, and he debated Henry Morgentaler before Ontario university audiences. He has appeared as an expert witness on fetal pain before  the Justice Committee of the State of Ohio.
  • Larry Reynolds, MD, CCFP, FCFP,  has been a Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Western Ontario and the University of Manitoba as well as a Department Chair and an Assistant Dean. He has practiced family medicine in Ontario and Manitoba. He has worked extensively clinically in maternity intrapartum care as well as doing minor surgery, emergency room care, care in northern Canada as well as some experiences in Uganda and Haiti. He holds an Honors Graduate in Medicine from the University of Manitoba, a Masters in Epidemiology from McMaster, and a Master in Bioethics from the University of Toronto.


Speakers at the Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide Symposium on Friday, Nov. 30:

  • Margaret Somerville, the founding director of the McGill Centre for Medicine, Ethics and Law. Somerville is the author of many internationally recognized books including: The Ethical Imagination and Death Talk.
  • Dr William Toffler is the national director of Physicians for Compassionate Care in Portland Oregon, a national organization of physicians who oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide in the US.
  • Dr. Peter Saunders is the director of the Care NOT Killing Alliance in the UK, that co-ordinates organizations in the UK that oppose euthanasia and assisted suicide and support palliative care. They were instrumental in defeating a recent assisted suicide bill in the UK.
  • Dr. Bob Orr is the director of the Vermont Alliance for Ethical Health Care opposes assisted suicide and promotes ethical healthcare practices. They were instrumental in defeating a recent assisted suicide bill in Vermont.
  • Bert Dorenbos is the leader of Cry for Life in the Netherlands.
  • Cheryl Eckstein is the founder of the Compassionate Health Care Network in Canada.
  • Dr. Paul Byrne is a Neonatologist from Ohio and a recognized expert in the area of Brain Death.
  • Dr Mark Mostert is an expert on the Nazi T4 - euthanasia program.

*Program subject to change

For further information on the Euthanasia Symposium, see:
The International Symposium on Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

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