DO NO HARM, RIGHT?

I was surprised to read Gabor Mate's article To Help, Or At Least Do
No Harm (June 4). The examples he cites - providing inhalant
medications to smokers with lung inflammation or bypass surgery to
cardiac patients - are good examples of helpful treatments. More
important, these actions cause no harm. But injecting heroin, cocaine
or methamphetamine into a human's body does cause harm. We know the
injection itself causes harm, and we know the drugs cause harm -
assuming anyone knows what is actually contained within the untested,
unregulated brew that is being injected. Inhalant medications and
bypass surgery are not fair analogies to injection drug use. A more
apt analogy of what Insite, Vancouver's safe-injection facility, does
would be a doctor holding a cigarette to make sure a smoker doesn't
burn his lips, or watching a woman with cardiac problems eat fatty
French fries to ensure she swallows them properly.

Given that doctors are ethically bound to do no harm, the idea of one
doctor or a community of doctors advocating for activities that cause
harm is disturbing. It is also hypocritical, given that a doctor
suffering from drug addiction in Canada would automatically be
referred to a treatment program based on abstinence; no addicted
doctor would be referred to a supervised injection site and told:
"Keep injecting until you are ready for treatment."

Tony Clement

Minister of Health

Ottawa