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May 1, 2024 – Timothy Christie, the regional director of ethics services for the Horizon Health Network, said it’s very problematic from an ethics perspective to have a program that could cause harm and not know how to effectively evaluate it since we don’t know what success looks like when there is no cure for addiction. It’s “highly likely” New Brunswick’s plan to force some people with severe addiction into involuntary treatment will cause more harm than good, according to an ethics expert.

Timothy Christie, the regional director of ethics services for the Horizon Health Network, says he conducted an ethics analysis of the proposed Compassionate Intervention Act and found “huge problems” related to Charter violations and evidence-based medicine, he said.

He also believes he has identified a better approach — investing more in the social determinants of health; the non-medical factors that influence health outcomes. These are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live and age, such as education and employment.

If the Higgs government intends to push ahead with the legislation, Christie contends it should be amended. “We will have to do things to make it as humane and ethical as we possibly can.”

This includes having a “rigorous evaluation plan,” so if forcing people into treatment against their will does prove to be more harmful than beneficial, clear stopping rules will be established, said Christie, who is also an adjunct professor of bioethics at Dalhousie University and an adjunct professor of philosophy at the University of New Brunswick.    

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