Tory MP Urged to Hand in Medical Licence over Asbestos

Can a doctor uphold the hippocratic oath if the party she's a member of supports a deadly industry?

The relatives of asbestos victims have written a letter to Tory MP Kellie Leitch, urging her to hand in her medical licence unless she speaks out against her party's support of Quebec's asbestos industry. This latest letter follows one from this summer in which a slew of medical doctors asked Leitch, an orthopedic surgeon who ran for the Tories in an Ontario riding this past election, to follow the hippocratic oath and denounce the asbestos industry. This new letter says that the families of asbestos victims “will not sit idly by while you aid and abet the creation of more asbestos victims amongst the poorest and most unprotected people on the planet.” Leitch has so far declined to comment on the letters, but her party's support for the last remaining asbestos mine in southern Quebec remains unflinching, even if the industry could soon die out on its own. The asbestos mined in Quebec is most often shipped to developing countries with relaxed standards on how to use the mineral, which causes lung cancer after prolonged exposure to it.