St. Paul’s Hospital and nine other Metro Vancouver medical facilities overseen by the Catholic Church are caught in an ethical tug of war between the religious objection to assisted suicide and a new federal government report that says Canadians should have access to medically assisted dying.

Providence Health Care made public a memo Thursday sent to doctors reminding them that physician-assisted death “contradicts the basic tenets of Catholic health care — wherein life is held to be sacred from conception to natural death — and not permitted in Catholic health care institutions such as Providence.”

The memo set off a firestorm of debate, as the federal report, tabled in Parliament, said medical assistance in dying should be made available with few obstacles to Canadians who are suffering from grievous and irremediable medical conditions that cause enduring suffering.

The Supreme Court of Canada struck down the legal ban on physician-assisted death last year. The recommendations from this report are to help the government come up with replacement legislation by June 6.

Providence will review Thursday’s parliamentary committee recommendations, work with the provincial health ministry to “gain clarity” on this issue, and is waiting for the new federal legislation, said Shaf Hussain, the health authority’s vice-president of public affairs.

He noted this discussion highlights the “complexities of the issue and the thinking behind the approach by Catholic health care providers throughout Canada.”

Quebec last year became the first province to pass a law that requires publicly funded health care facilities to provide assisted suicide or provide a referral to another facility.

B.C. Health Minister Terry Lake said Thursday there should be room for conscientious objectors in this province, and suggested a compromise solution.

“We can accommodate both the patient and providers that find themselves in an ethical, moral, religious dilemma,” he said in an interview.

Lake said it’s possible to accommodate St. Paul’s and Providence not participating in physician assisted dying by transferring a patient to another health facility.

Patients have the right to refuse life-saving care, and it is “ethically and legally appropriate” for physicians to abide by that, argued medical ethicist Eike-Henner Kluge, of the University of Victoria. But the Quebec law may pose a challenge, he added, for Providence leaders and doctors who may balk — because of their religious beliefs — at sending patients to a facility that will end their lives.

“Providence would also have to go along with that ... referring to a physician who is willing to participate in assisted death,” Kluge said.

When asked about how Church policies on assisted dying, abortion, birth control and homosexuality affect Providence health services, Hussain noted the health authority follows Catholic Health Alliance of Canada guidelines written by “a panel of ethicists, clinicians, theologians and with input from Catholic Bishops across Canada.”

The alliance wrote a position paper in October on medically assisted death that said, in part, that doctors and health service organizations (whether publicly funded or not) “must never be coerced or compelled to be involved in any form of physician-assisted death if it contradicts their stated institutional values and mission.”