It seems every time a new story regarding euthanasia comes out of Canada that it’s more extreme than the last one. And that’s true of yet another headline: “Canadian woman was euthanized ‘against her will’ after husband was fed-up with caring for her.”
According to the story, “A report by the Ontario MAiD [Medical Assistance in Dying] Death Review Committee raised concerns that safeguards were being eroded that led to questionable deaths,” including that of a “Mrs B” who severely declined after surgery complications, leading to her husband struggling to care for her. Reportedly, she “expressed her desire for MAiD to her family,” and that day her husband contacted a referral service. Apparently, she told the assessor (the person sent to see if she was eligible for MAiD) that she had changed her mind. The next day, she was taken to a hospital where her doctor applied for in-patient hospice care, but after two assessors agreed she was eligible for MAiD, she was euthanized that evening.
The report highlighted a few other shocking stories, including: “After being hospitalized with delirium, he was deemed ‘capable’ for a brief moment – and euthanized. An elderly woman known as Mrs 6F who was approved for MAiD after a single meeting in which a family member relayed her supposed wish to die. Her consent on the day of her death was interpreted through hand squeezes. In another, a man known as Mr A with early Alzheimer’s signed a waiver years earlier.”
Canada legalized euthanasia for terminal illness in 2016—just a decade ago—and it has progressed from being an option for those with a terminal illness diagnosis to people being euthanized against their wishes. And it will only get worse from here! This is the logical, sad result of building one’s thinking on man’s word and not God’s Word.
This is the natural consequence of a worldview that loves death but masquerades as “compassionate.” There’s nothing “compassionate” about ending the lives of those who are suffering. It’s exploitative and dehumanizing, and it has proven to be a very slippery slope.
As Christians, we understand that human life has unique value. We don’t kill an elderly woman like she’s a sick dog we’re tired of caring for and that needs to be “put down.” Humans are made in the image of God, and their lives have a value that nothing else in all of creation has (look to the cross of Jesus Christ to see how much value a human life has to the Creator God!). We don’t have the power of life and death—we aren’t God. And when we pretend that we are, the results are always deadly for the most vulnerable.
