Assisted Suicide Kills as Many Canadians as Automobiles
Our friends at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview have penned a striking commentary that highlights the realities of physician-assisted suicide in Canada.
According to a recent Health Canada report, between January and October, 2018, 2,600 people were euthanized there, an average of 218 a month. Thus, by the end of 2018, it’s likely that at least 3,000 Canadians died by doctor-assisted suicide.
That’s as many people as were killed in automobile accidents that year.
Assisted-suicide is a serious problem. We’re winning the battle to end abortion, but suicide is the next big front in the pro-life fight.
Here’s important information everyone needs to know about assisted-suicide.
Researchers in North America have continued to find that people who ask a doctor to prescribe drugs to help them commit suicide generally aren’t concerned about pain and suffering caused by a terminal illness. They’re worried about losing their autonomy or their way of life.
In Canada — where assisted-suicide is legal — researchers 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.”
Since 1998, more than 90% of the people who inquired about assisted suicide in Oregon said they were concerned about losing their autonomy. More than 75% expressed worries about losing their dignity. Only 26% said they were concerned about controlling their pain.
Last August we told you Belgian doctors have euthanized at least three minors suffering from brain tumors, muscular dystrophy, and cystic fibrosis. And in October we wrote that Canada’s largest children’s hospital was drafting a policy regarding euthanasia that some say could eventually let children decide to be euthanized without even notifying their parents.
I’ll keep saying it: 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.
