Whatever happened to medical ethics in Justin Trudeau’s Canada?  An article from December 7^th in Genocide News reported that “[t]he passage of Bill C-7 in Canada has greatly expanded the country’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) law, which was passed in 2021 at the height of the Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) “pandemic.”  “It used to be that just terminally ill adults qualified to legally take their own lives with the help of another, but now poor people and even children are moving into the crosshairs of Canada’s budding euthanasia industry.” 

The above article included comments from Alex Schadenberg, executive director and international chair of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.  He believes “…euthanasia will be expanded in Canada to include “severely ill” infants, an idea floated by the Quebec College of Physicians.  Unlike adults, infants cannot opt to commit suicide. They have no way to consent in the same way as adults with full cognitive functionality, meaning it is more homicide at that point than suicide.”  Whatever the motivation, it appears that Canada’s assisted suicide program is now basically without limits. 

The UK Daily Mail in two companion articles reports that the motivation for expanding eligibility for MAiD appears to be at least partially a result of the financial policies and rising costs driving the failure of Canada’s “free” healthcare system.   Wait times for critical care procedures often take over six months and sometimes several years due to a shortage of doctors caused by MAiD’s mandated price controls.  And when everyone gets free medical care, resources are abused so long wait times and inadequate care must follow.  As a result, the number of people in pain and frustrated by the long delays in getting treatment is rising leading many patients to give up and opt for suicide instead. 

In 2021, only 486 people died using California's assisted suicide program, but that same year in Canada, 10,064 died used MAID to die that year.  MAID has now grown so popular that Canada has both anti-suicide hotlines to try and stop people killing themselves, as well as pro-suicide hotlines for people wanting to end their lives.

MAID has fallen into further scrutiny over claims that people are now seeking assisted suicide due to poverty and homelessness or mental anguish, as opposed to the traditional method of the terminally-ill seeking a painless death. (snip)

Professor Tim Stainton, director of the Canadian Institute for Inclusion and Citizenship at the University of British Columbia, described Canada's law as 'probably the biggest existential threat to disabled people since the Nazis' programme in Germany in the 1930s'.

The onward march of euthanasia -- reportedly approved recently even for both diabetes and homelessness in Canada -- poses myriad other dilemmas for the rest of society.

Also reported is the alarming eagerness of some doctors to perform this deadly service.  “Dying With Dignity Canada associates Ellen Wiebe… and Stefanie Green …reportedly euthanized more than 700 people between them and bragged about it in a video.  Therefore, forget thinking that late term and post-birth abortions were the last remaining steps downward into the moral sewer. 

It is now clear that with God out of the way, human life has little value to most leftists so it may not have been a coincidence that I first learned of Canada’s euthanasia law just prior to America’s annual observance of National Sanctity of Human Life Day.  This year it occurs on Sunday January 22.  If this observance is unfamiliar, the date was based on the month and day in 1973 when the Supreme Court ruled in Roe vs. Wade to legalize abortion.  In 1984, President Ronald Reagan proclaimed January 22 as the day to emphasize nationally the need to protect and save lives, born or unborn. Note that Republicans have continuously supported the observance, only to see it curtailed under Bill Clinton.  George W. Bush restored it in 2001 and the observance continues despite opposition from the Dems.  Because the primary emphasis of this annual observance has been on minimizing abortion, perhaps it is past time for the fight against assisted suicide to get more emphasis.

The 6th commandment in Exodus 20:13 (NKJV) is concise; “Do not murder.”  Murder can be legally defined as taking another life without benefit of extenuating circumstances. Do extenuating circumstance excuse either abortion or assisted suicide?  I doubt it, but then my worldview is shaped by a Judeo-Christian definition of morality. 

The next lowest level on the Biblical scale of immorality would be making assisted suicide mandatory for disabled, the elderly or people of any age who may be a financial burden.  However, it’s highly doubtful Canada or any western nation will ever take that step and even if adopted, what government bureaucrat, doctor or anyone else has the moral authority to play God and decide how long a person is permitted to live?  Nevertheless, while not currently a ‘mandate’ in Canada, the ‘financial burden’ justification for assisted suicide appears to be working well enough as a ‘voluntary” program.

What is happening in Canada should be a warning of what may happen in the United States.  History has proven over and over that once a government run healthcare plan like Bernie Sanders’ proposed “Medicare for All” is implemented, it will be harder to end than a bad timeshare contract.  

Image: Marco Verch Professional Photographer