In Canada: Suicide is Cheaper Than Healthcare for Some

Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide,

Last month a Canadian man with ALS made shocking headlines when he opted to take his own life under the country’s assisted suicide and euthanasia laws after the government chose not to provide him with 24-hour home healthcare services due to cost.

Catholic News Agency writes,

Sean Tagert, 41, was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gherig’s disease, in March of 2013. In October 2017, he suffered cardiac arrest, and was subsequently placed on a ventilator. His illness robbed him of the ability to move his body, eat, or speak, and he communicated via an eye-gaze computer. His mental acuity was unaffected. 

At that time, Tagert’s doctors recommended 24-hour in-home care, which is typical for a person who uses a ventilator full time. Vancouver Coastal Health, Tagert’s regional health authority, only initially offered 15.5 hours of care a day. Eventually, after much effort, they increased their offer to 20 hours a day–which still meant that Tagert had to pay $263.50 each day for the remaining four hours of required care. 

To put it bluntly, Tagert chose physician-assisted suicide for financial reasons.

Physician-assisted suicide preys on the poor.

People who who cannot afford medical treatment may feel like assisted suicide is their only choice.

This problem isn’t limited to countries with socialized medicine like Canada.

In parts of the U.S. where physician-assisted suicide is legal, insurance companies have refused to pay for patients’ medical care, but have offered to cover assisted-suicide drugs.

As John Stonestreet at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview writes,

What happened in British Columbia can happen in Belgium, and in Oregon, and in New Zealand, and in Colorado, and anywhere physician-assisted suicide is legal.

Being pro-life means believing human life is sacred from conception until natural death, and it means opposing the taking of human life without just cause.

Just like abortion, euthanasia and assisted-suicide are murder, and they violate the sanctity of human life.

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Indiana Teen Died From Smoking Marijuana

Marijuana

A news article published last Friday highlights the tragic story of Brian Smith Jr., an Indiana teen who died from smoking marijuana last October.

According to the article, the autopsy report attributed his death to dehydration due to cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome (CHS).

CHS is a condition that sends many marijuana users to the ER with severe nausea and vomiting, and it can be fatal.

There has been increased focus on CHS in recent years as states have moved to legalize marijuana and as marijuana has become more potent.

The article notes,

Experts aren’t 100% sure what’s behind the relatively sudden advent of this condition. They suspect that more potent cannabis may be to blame, along with several states’ decision to legalize the drug for medicinal purposes or altogether.

In the 1970s, THC concentration in most marijuana would be about 7%, Lapoint said. The mean concentration has risen to 15% to 30%, and it’s possible to make extracts with 99% THC.

“Marijuana was the joke of the toxicology world when it was 7%,” [Dr. Jeff] Lapoint said. “People never got sick. … But now if you make the concentration 99%, it’s just like if a 17-year-old kid goes to a frat party and has a beer. That’s a lot different than drinking shots of Everclear 151. Just like anything, the dose makes the poison.”

Unfortunately, stories like these are not unusual. We have read time and again about people hospitalized or killed as a result of marijuana use.

All of this underscores what we have said for years: Marijuana may be many things, but harmless simply is not one of them.

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