John Stonestreet – Page 2

West Virginia vs. Canada on Protecting Vulnerable Lives: Guest Column

Jan 13, 2025John StonestreetEuthanasia and Assisted SuicideAssisted Suicide, Euthanasia, Life, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life

Contrary to what Canadian officials have claimed, the “safeguards” put in place for the nation’s “medical assistance in dying” (MAID) practice are not sufficient. Highlighting the province of Ontario alone, a report in the New Atlantis notes that hundreds of serious violations have occurred, but none have been reported to law enforcement.

In Ontario, the coroner’s office is responsible for monitoring euthanasia malpractice. Although Chief Coroner Dirk Huyer has boasted that “Every case is reported. Everybody has scrutiny on all these cases. . .,” physician whistleblowers have identified over 400 “issues with compliance,” ranging from patients killed who were not capable of consent to communication breakdowns with pharmacists providing the deadly prescriptions. For example, physicians are legally required to notify pharmacists about the purpose of the euthanasia medications prior to dispensation, but only 61% of physicians complied with this regulation.

More troubling are various reported cases of providers expediting euthanizing drugs to patients sooner than the legally required 10-day waiting period. In one case, euthanasia provider Dr. Eugenie Tjan administered the wrong drugs. When the patient did not die, the doctor had to administer different drugs to complete the assisted suicide. Huyer failed to report this, eventually admitting this was a “blatant” case of violating Canadian laws: “The family and the deceased person suffered tremendously.”

Also, according to the report, about one quarter of all euthanasia providers in Ontario have received at least one slap on the wrist response from the coroner’s office regarding a compliance issue in 2023 alone. According to national law, all reports should be opened as criminal investigations, but Huyer failed to report even one. Instead, he determined that all issues in question required only an “informal conversation” with the practitioner. Dr. Tjan, for example, received an email of warning and remains licensed.

Making this story worse is that medically assisted suicide is now the fifth leading cause of death in Canada. The failure to minimize and regulate euthanasia there only confirms fears long articulated by critics. In fact, anywhere some form of doctor assisted death has been legalized, predictions of “slippery slopes” have been realized. For example, 10 states including the District of Columbia, have legalized physician-assisted suicide since 1994. In at least five, restrictions and regulations around the practice continue to be loosened, leading to increased harm.

The good news is that it has been a few years since the last U.S. state legalized some form of doctor assisted suicide. Perhaps the only positive development of Canada’s quick slide down this slippery slope is that America has seen the horrors: what at one point seemed an inevitable march of our own, has slowed. Last year, in fact, West Virginia voters narrowly passed an amendment to proactively outlaw “medical assistance in dying” in that state. Among other things, the amendment recognizes that the state fundamentally exists not to give citizens whatever they want, but to protect the gift and right to life endowed by the Creator on all people, no matter how vulnerable. In this sense, West Virginia offers a useful model that other states can emulate.

What’s Wrong with Wanting Grandchildren?

Jan 2, 2025John StonestreetFamilyFamily

With more millennials choosing no kids, would-be grandparents mourn the end of their family line.

People often joke that if they’d known becoming a grandparent was so much fun, they would have done it before having kids. Having grandchildren is widely considered one of life’s great joys, one which, historically, most adults experienced. Today, however, a growing number of people will never have this experience.

Grandparents in America are becoming rarer. In 2014, 60% of people over 50 had at least one grandchild. By 2021, that had fallen to just over half. The historic decline in birth rates means that many who devoted their early lives to raising families will spend their later years watching those families end. The main reason for this is that many millennials, the generation now entering middle age, have chosen not to have kids.

Writing at The New York Times recently, Catherine Pearson gave voice to “the unspoken grief of never becoming a grandparent.” People she interviewed confessed “a deep sense of longing and loss when their children opt out of parenthood, even if they understand at an intellectual level that their children do not ‘owe’ them a family legacy.”

Parents of children who don’t want children find themselves in a difficult spot, especially those who have bought into the expressive individualist idea that children are a choice, and the only reason to have them is to enhance personal happiness. If their children don’t want children, these parents are supposed to be okay with that decision. Apparently, many aren’t.

For example, one would-be grandmother assured Pearson, “This decision was right for my kids,” before adding sadly, “I’m not going to have grandchildren. So that part of my life is just over.” Others who face silent golden years when they expected the patter of little feet are still hoping to convince their adult children to reconsider. One mother said she gently reminds her intentionally childfree daughter that she might not always feel this way—that the woman her daughter will be in ten years “will not recognize the person she is today.”

According to Pearson, she received a largely hostile social media reaction to her article, mostly from millennials. Their “how dare you feel entitled to grandchildren?” reaction puts a “silencing effect” on the whole conversation. In generations past, hopeful grandmas and grandpas would encourage families, but they now simply keep quiet as their children remain unmarried into their thirties, often citing climate change, racism, and school shootings as their reasons to be childless. One 69-year-old mom said her daughter has “made it perfectly clear … that this subject is not to be discussed.”

It’s difficult to imagine a more practical “ideas have consequences” moment than this. The inability of so many to articulate why not having grandkids is a tragedy and to be honest about their grief reveals much about our values. We’ve lost even the language to say what people for most of history took for granted. It is good and normal to want to see your descendants, and it hurts when that hope is dashed.

This moment also illustrates how ideas and their consequences are intergenerational. The view that children are unnecessary burdens or optional accessories did not start with millennials, but it has reached its logical conclusion in that generation. The rapid disappearance and replacement of once-common family relationships, including siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents has made the world lonelier for young and old alike.

Christians should “mourn with those who mourn,” which is what Pearson’s article attempted. The pain of never becoming a grandparent should be acknowledged and legitimized, and parents should not be bullied into unconditionally affirming every choice their grown children make. Kids aren’t products, so no one is “owed” grandkids, and not everyone will or should get married, but some choices are better for society than others. The record number of people in our world choosing to remain barren points to a deep societal sickness.

Christians should also witness to a countercultural way of life, including a positive perspective on children. At least, we can make sure they know they’re not burdens or accessories, that they bring joy, and that we hope—Lord willing—the same joy may one day find them.

None of this by itself will turn our demographic future around. But until it’s once again okay to look forward to seeing our children’s children, there won’t be much of a demographic future in the first place.

A Little Courage Goes A Long Way: Guest Column

Dec 31, 2024John StonestreetCurrent EventsCommunism, Truth

Often, even the smallest acts of courage can change the world. Kamila Bendova and her late husband Václav, both Christians and mathematicians, raised their family in Communist-controlled Czechoslovakia while engaged in the anti-totalitarian efforts of the Charter 77 resistance group. Kamila shared their story of courage during the Colson Center National Conference in May.

The Bendova’s courage began with a small act of resistance. In an old video clip from the BBC, which Kamila showed during the conference, she and her husband are debating whether to acquiesce to the government’s demand that citizens display little flags celebrating the communist takeover:

You see, they wanted us to show the world that the Czech Republic was a democracy on the outside. But on the inside, it didn’t work like that. Yes, we had elections, but there was only one party you could vote for.

Powerfully, the video concluded with the two agreeing, simply and decisively, but also courageously, “No little flags. No little flags.”

Eventually, their resistance would cost them greatly. In 1979, Václav was arrested for his involvement with Charter 77 and imprisoned for four years. Despite this hardship, Kamila continued to open her home to dissidents, many of whom would stop by to seek advice and encouragement before being investigated by the secret police. She relayed secret communications and hid resistance documents in her apartment. All the while, she and her family prayed, studied, and stayed together. The Bendova’s taught their children to love truth and reject lies, especially by reading to them every night. The story that most shaped the moral imagination of the children was Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, which was illegal at the time.

When asked “Why Tolkien?” Kamila responded:

Because we knew Mordor was real. We felt that their story … was our story too. Tolkien’s dragons are more realistic than a lot of things we have in this world.

Like the hobbits and their friends, Kamila’s family also faced an oppressive regime. And like Tolkien’s heroes, the Bendova’s faithfulness and small acts of courage were not in vain.

Author Rod Dreher has told the Bendova story in two of his books. At the conference, he noted that courage is costly but comes with great gain:

What has [a person] gained by being willing to make this stand? For one thing, he’s gained his self-respect. He knows that he won’t live by lies even if he has to pay a price for it. Beyond that, though, he has made a statement to the wider community that it is possible not to live by lies. It is possible to defy this unjust authority if you are willing to suffer.

Over time, enough people may be inspired by seeing the small but meaningful acts of courage that they will bring down the entire system, which is built on lies. That’s why it’s important to take the flag down or to take the sign down in your shop, or not to sign a petition that you don’t believe in.

It may be that Kamila’s example of courage, even in the smallest aspects of raising children and exposing lies, can inspire Christians today who face what Dreher calls “soft totalitarianism.” America may not have secret police or gulags, but we do have woke universities and social media influencers, and powerful DEI departments and state civil rights commissions. They threaten to cancel and to penalize and to fire. We’ve seen how small acts of courage from bakers and professors and pundits and X accounts can push back on the darkness we face.

Likely, the new administration will bring a reprieve from the most aggressive corners of the left. Even so, this was made possible by small acts of courage in various corners of our culture and, in the days ahead, the courage in our houses will be more important than what comes from the White House. Kamila and the Bendova family are reminders that little acts of courage go a long way.