Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) has made it the poster child for euthanasia in the Western World, with masses of citizens signing off every year to be killed through the program.
Since its legalization, assisted suicide has exploded in the country, with an abysmal amount of pushback by the public. Funeral homes have begun offering assisted suicide, 1-in-3 Canadians support euthanasia being provided to people in poverty, and MAiD is now the fifth leading cause of death—the “loss of natural affection” resulting from this program should be plain for all to see (2 Timothy 3:1-5).
Knowing that many of the “progressive” movements adopted by Canada routinely spread to America, some lawmakers are taking pre-emptive measures to block the deadly practice from creeping into their states.
Citing widespread euthanasia being perpetrated under Canada’s MAiD program, West Virginia is seeking to ban assisted suicide through a ballot initiative, which would safeguard its citizens from the practice in the State’s Constitution.
West Virginia Amendment 1 reads:
This amendment would prohibit people from participating in “the practice of medically assisted suicide, euthanasia, or mercy killing of a person.” This practice is sometimes referred to as assisted death, assisted suicide, or aid-in-dying. This includes prohibiting healthcare providers and physicians. This amendment would not prevent the administration or prescription of medication to alleviate pain or discomfort while the patient’s condition follows its natural course, nor does it prohibit withholding or withdrawing of life-sustaining treatment at the request of the patient or patient’s decision maker. The amendment also does not prevent the state from providing capital punishment.
Pat McGeehan, a state delegate in West Virginia, boldly denounced Canada’s MAiD program, calling it “a fancy way of saying they’re killing their own citizens.”
With the eligibility of those who can receive euthanasia under Canadian law constantly expanding, the death toll has reached staggering numbers. According to the last report published by the government, 2022 alone saw over 13,000 individuals killed in the country at the hands of assisted suicide, which constituted a 31.2% increase from the prior year. Between 2016, when MAiD was legalized, and 2022, nearly 45,000 lives have been ended prematurely.
Calling those numbers “horrific,” McGeehan stressed that his state is seeking to be the “gold standard” and “send a message against this sort of nihilistic euthanasia movement sweeping the Western world.”
As Ken Ham, Founder and CEO of Answers In Genesis (AiG), explained: “Canada isn’t just sliding down a slippery slope… it’s calmly and purposefully driving right off the cliff with no desire to hit the brakes or steer away.”
“We’ve said before that worldviews have consequences—and bad worldviews have bad consequences. And in this case, deadly consequences,” Ham warned.
Many have testified to the enormous pressure placed on vulnerable individuals to agree to assisted suicide—using manipulative techniques, such as the burden their lives have financially on family members and the fear of suffering. I know this personally. Earlier this year, my grandfather, who was suffering from terminal stomach cancer in Alberta, informed me that he was presented with the MAiD program. After expressing hesitation, they told him that it would relieve the tremendous pain he was experiencing and assured him it could be set up very quickly. Having recently accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior, he inquired about what the Bible said on the matter and rejected MAiD, expressing his unwavering desire to die in the timing and by the will of God—which he did the following Sunday.
Patricia Engler, an apologist with AiG, recently wrote: “Where a secular view sees humans as isolated machines with the right to self-destruct at will, God’s Word portrays humans as interdependent embodied souls with indelible dignity. Various nations have departed from this high view of life by legislating [euthanaisa], with Canada offering an especially sobering case study.”
West Virginia’s concern that assisted suicide will make its way across the border is indeed valid, with ten states—including Oregon, California, Washington, Hawaii, New Jersey, Vermont, and others—already legalizing the act in varying degrees.
Some of those states have further opened the door for euthanasia tourism, allowing non-residents also to partake, McGeehan further went on to note.
“I had a constituent that called me and was struggling. He was diagnosed with a form of colon cancer, but the doctors told him he could go into remission in a couple of years. But he was scared,” McGeehan recounted. “He didn’t believe, he was an atheist, and he went to Oregon on Easter Sunday. I stayed on the phone with him. He flew into Portland, [and I] tried to talk him out of it. He ended his life via medically assisted suicide.”
“We’ve got to push back against this. This is just part of a broader trend of nihilism that’s sweeping our country with the progressive liberal order,” he stated, calling assisted suicide a “perverted” and “twisted” form of compassion.
