Canada’s Obsession With Euthanasia

Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, , , ,

Recently, our friends at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview have published commentaries on assisted suicide and euthanasia in Canada.

Last year Canada legalized so-called “medical assistance in dying.” However, many Canadian doctors have been reluctant to help patients end their lives.

Last August, John Stonestreet highlighted a proposal to pay Canadian doctors a premium to prescribe deadly drugs. The goal seems to be to offer a financial incentive to doctors who assist with patients’ suicides.

Yesterday, Eric Metaxas cited efforts to make assisted suicide and euthanasia more accessible for the mentally ill. As Metaxas points out, these newest arguments in favor of expanding assisted suicide in Canada center less around compassion for those who suffer and more around improving society. He writes,

In Canada’s case, [assisted suicide is] being championed by people who claim to be working for a better future. Whatever the setting, compassion is the last thing we should call it.

Christians are often criticized for using the “slippery slope” argument when it comes to assisted suicide — the argument that what starts out as assisted suicide for a few terminally-ill people ends with euthanasia.

In this case, Canada doesn’t simply seem to be on a slippery slope; they’re plummeting down it.

Photo Credit: By Gustavo Vilela Alkmin (Máquina fotográfica de colega) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.

READ MORE

Assisted Suicide Claims 111 Lives in California in First 6 Months

Life, , , ,

According to a report recently released by the State of California, 111 people ended their lives in the first six months of the state’s new “end of life option act.”

California legalized assisted-suicide last year, and it now lets physicians prescribe life-ending drugs to ill patients. So far, on average it seems 4 – 5 people every week are choosing to take their own lives as a result.

You may recall that researchers in Canada–where assisted-suicide is legal–recently found that people inquired about assisted-suicide not because of excruciating pain, but because they are dissatisfied with their lives in the wake of their illness.

As one researcher put it, “Their quality of life is not what they want. They are mostly educated and affluent — people who are used to being successful and in control of their lives, and it’s how they want their death to be.”

A study conducted in Oregon in 1999 concluded, “the decision to request and use a prescription for lethal medications . . . was associated with views on autonomy and control, not with fear of intractable pain or concern about financial loss.”

The report from California corroborates some of these findings. Of the 111 people who took their own lives through California’s assisted-suicide law, most had a college degree or higher. Much like in Canada, these are people who appear to be “educated and affluent.”

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.

While the term “pro-life” is often applied to work related to abortion, opposition to suicide and euthanasia falls under the purview of pro-life work as well.

Just like abortion, assisted-suicide fails to acknowledge that God is the creator and giver of life. Human life is sacred, and no sickness gives us an excuse to end someone’s life prematurely–including our own.

Simply put: Physician-assisted suicide violates human dignity and the sanctity of human life.

READ MORE

Europeans Euthanizing Children

Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide, , , ,

The Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview is highlighting some startling information out of Europe.

For some time, now, the Netherlands and Belgium have allowed euthanasia and assisted suicide for conditions ranging from terminal illness to emotional distress.

Now Europeans are calling for expanded euthanasia for children.

John Stonestreet writes,

Belgium has already deemed children over twelve “mature enough” to decide to die. Now the Dutch Pediatric Association wants both countries to open up euthanasia to children under twelve, at the discretion of doctors and parents.

Click here to read Stonestreet’s short commentary or listen to it below.

[audio:http://www.breakpoint.org/images/content/breakpoint/audio/point/2016/TPT505102016.mp3|titles=Euthanasia Under 12 by John Stonestreet]

READ MORE