Stories out of Canada continue to underscore how devastating euthanasia has been for people living there and for the nation’s healthcare system as a whole.
The Canadian Parliament first legalized so-called “Medical Aid in Dying” in 2016. The goal was to let terminally ill people end their lives via assisted suicide, but Canadians have since seen the practice expand under a deadly bait and switch.
In the past decade, “Medical Aid in Dying” has claimed an estimated 100,000 lives and now accounts for one in 20 Canadian deaths. Next year, the country could expand assisted suicide to include people suffering solely from mental health conditions like anxiety or depression. Canadian healthcare officials have even suggested euthanasia be extended to “babies from birth to one year of age who come into the world with severe deformities and very serious syndromes.”
Earlier this year, Texas Right to Life shared a sobering story about Kristin, a wife and mother diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer while living in Canada. Canadian healthcare officials told Kristin that assisted suicide was her only option. Instead, Kristin came to the U.S., where she received surgery and aggressive treatments that saved her life.
Over the summer, a story surfaced about a Canadian grandmother euthanized under “Medical Aid in Dying.” The elderly woman reportedly suffered from poor health, including cognitive problems. The grandmother originally said she did not want to die by assisted suicide, but testimony from her family alleges healthcare professionals misled her about the assisted suicide process and did not get final verbal consent to “assisted suicide” before giving her a lethal injection.
When it comes to assisted suicide and euthanasia, the slippery slope keeps slipping.
Assisted suicide and euthanasia devastate families and rob patients of compassionate care.
In the U.S., assisted suicide has been promoted due to its relatively low cost compared to healthcare. In some cases, insurance companies have refused to pay for patients’ medical care, but have offered to cover assisted-suicide drugs.
You cannot put a price tag on human life. Being pro-life means believing innocent human life is sacred from conception until natural death.
Just like abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide are murder, and they violate the sanctity of human life.
That’s why Family Council helped defeat a very bad bill in 2019 that would have let doctors prescribe lethal drugs to patients in Arkansas and two bad end-of-life bills in 2021. These were flawed measures that fundamentally disrespected the right to life.
We plan to continue working with our friends across the state to protect Arkansans from assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
