This post was originally published on this site.
P.g.champion, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Canada’s physician assisted suicide program, now euphemistically called “Medical Assistance in Dying” (MAiD), has suffered yet another nightmare headline. A Canadian physician named Dr. James MacLean has been disciplined by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario for what can only be described as an extraordinarily casual approach to ending human lives.
First, he conducted a medical assessment for euthanasia at a Tim Horton’s coffee shop, then he gave the patient a ride to the facility where the procedure was performed. The patient, who allegedly suffered from a debilitating but treatable chronic inflammatory bowel disease, was put to death in an industrial building where cadavers are prepared for transport to funeral homes. In a second case, MacLean administered lethal drugs to a patient at their home, pronounced the patient dead, and left — only to return and repeat the procedure after the patient began breathing again! The doctor’s penalty? Six months of supervised practice and some required reading on maintaining appropriate professional boundaries.
These stories may be shocking, but they are exactly what a culture of death looks like when it matures.
Canada legalized assisted suicide in 2016. Within three years, it accounted for two percent of all deaths in the country. By 2021, that figure had risen to over three percent — more than ten thousand deaths that year, surpassing every other country in the world for assisted deaths. Some regions of Canada are now reporting rates approaching seven percent.
The categories of eligibility keep expanding. A military veteran was offered so-called MAiD by her government caseworker while trying to get a wheelchair ramp installed at her home. A man was euthanized for a hearing and cognitive disability with recurring depression. A woman received it after a concussion. And next year, Canada is scheduled to expand assisted suicide eligibility to people whose only condition is mental illness. No terminal diagnosis. No physical ailment. Just a psychiatric condition. Advocates are already pushing to extend it to minors.
Many voices, including Phyllis Schlafly, warned exactly where the so-called “death with dignity” movement would lead, but several nations and a growing number of U.S. states have ignored those warnings. Canada is now the poster child for the sickening turns this practice will take, and how rapidly it will expand.
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