Pubdate: Wed, 29 Aug 2007
Source: Catholic Register, The (Canada)
Contact:  2007 The Catholic Register
Website: http://www.catholicregister.org/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4554
Author: Michael Swan
Note: Michael Swan is Associate Editor of The Catholic Register. He 
is an award-winning writer and photographer and holds a Master of 
Arts degree from New York University.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/InSite
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites)

SAFE INJECTION SITES MAY FALL TO IDEOLOGY

An Evangelical Christian scientist, with the support of 134 
scientists and public health officials, has challenged the federal 
government to either continue funding a safe injection site for drug 
addicts in Vancouver or admit ideology and not science is behind its 
decision to close down the three-year old InSite safe injection facility .

In "Science and Ideology ," published in the online scientific 
journal www.openmedicine.ca , Dr. Stephen Hwang claims statements 
from Health Minister Tony Clement that scientific studies on safe 
injection sites are so far inconclusive "suggests that scientific 
evidence is about to be trumped by ideology." Without a decision to 
continue funding by Sept. 12, InSite will close in December.

Among the signatories supporting Hwang's letter are British 
Columbia's chief medical officer of health, the head of the British 
Columbia Centre for Disease Control and Montreal's director of public 
health. Hwang is a doctor and researcher at St. Michael's Hospital 
and a professor of medicine at the University of Toronto.

The idea of tax dollars going to help addicts do something which is 
illegal and immoral may sound wrong to many Christians, but science 
tells Hwang that it is in fact the Christian thing to do.

"I feel very strongly about this issue. This issue is one in which 
not only does the science show that it's effective, the scientific 
evidence strongly suggests that the fears that people raise about the 
approach are not true," Hwang told The Catholic Register. "It's a 
case in which even if one were to make the moral argument that we're 
concerned that this harm reduction intervention will encourage people 
to use more drugs, the evidence suggests that's not true."

Studies show the crime rate has fallen in Vancouver's downtown east 
side since the safe injection site opened, that addicts seek 
rehabilitation sooner because of the safe injection site and that the 
clean needles distributed at the site help control the spread of HIV, 
hepatitis and other diseases. Science is a better basis for deciding 
how to treat addicts than a gut reaction of moral repugnance for what 
addicts do, Hwang said.

"The discussion around addicts and addiction will often degenerate 
into a discussion of how do we good people avoid being harmed by 
these bad people," Hwang said. "It is very much a kind of blaming, 
and positioning oneself as being morally superior to these people."

Hwang's Evangelical faith tells him that isolating and punishing 
addicts is wrong.

"Our Christian faith tells us that we're all equally sinful, and we 
stand equally before God, and none of us is righteous or good in the 
Christian sense," he said. "Therefore, we shouldn't be creating 
classes of what people now call bad people but which Christians call 
sinners. It's essentially saying, 'I'm not so bad a sinner and you're 
a really bad one.' "

The Catholic case for harm reduction in public health care is just as 
strong, said clinical ethicist Brendan Leier.

"The tradition that speaks to me on this is really the social justice 
tradition," said the St. Joseph's College, University of Alberta 
professor of moral theology and ethicist at the John Dossetor Health 
Centre in Edmonton.

Public policy which marginalizes and demonizes addicts has proven 
itself to be harmful to the common good in the "war on drugs" 
approach in the United States, Leier said. High standards of personal 
morality don't constitute a public policy which cares for the whole 
community, he said.

"For individuals, it's fine to say 'I'm not going to raise my 
children with a harm reduction strategy; I'm going to say you should 
abstain from premarital sex and you should abstain from drugs and 
alcohol,' " said Leier. "That's fine. That's an individual choice, 
and one that I would certainly never argue with anyone about. But 
when we're talking about public policy, public policy demands the 
allocation of scarce resources - tax dollars and what have you. That 
demands a fair and equitable rationale for their distribution. 
Unfortunately, dogma and individual conscience decisions to abstain 
and any sort of moralistic judgment doesn't weigh into the just 
allocation of scarce resources."

While some Catholics might at first worry that the government is 
materially or formally co-operating in evil by providing addicts with 
the tools of their own destruction, that doesn't stand up to 
scrutiny, said Redemptorist ethicist Fr. Mark Miller.

Traditional Catholic moral theology prohibits formal co-operation in 
the sin of another, meaning to assist someone in committing an evil 
act while having in mind the same purpose or goal as the person 
committing the act. If the purpose of the safe injection site is to 
provide a safe environment, clean needles, medical supervision and 
generally to preserve the life of the addict then it's not formally 
co-operating in the addict's self destructive act.

"Some people would say you're giving them the OK. I disagree with 
that because I think the implication is that we're dealing with 
people who can make choices," said Miller, who works as clinical 
ethicist at St. Paul's Hospital in Regina. "When they're addicted 
that's a whole different kettle of fish. My argument would be that 
we're providing material co-operation because it does reduce harm."

A Catholic understanding of the natural law concept found in the 
writing of St. Thomas Aquinas would strongly favour following 
scientific evidence in setting public policy, said Miller.

"The truth of science is something that will complement the truth of 
morality, and vice versa," he said.

Catholic support for harm reduction isn't just a matter of ethical 
theory and philosophy in Miller's eyes. He also turns to Scripture.

"This is a social justice issue. It's almost like the situation of 
lepers in the time of Jesus," he said. "What Jesus did was say, 'No, 
you embrace them; you bring them in, you make them part of the 
community.' That becomes part of the healing. It doesn't work for 
everybody, but it's going to work for the community. It also becomes 
part of the healing of the community, because otherwise you become 
elitist and moralistic."

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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman