It’s almost back-to-school time in many parts of Canada. Will students be painting coffins in the playground? Will they have field trips to and pajama parties in funeral homes? These are some suggestions, mentioned on the podcast Disrupting Death, for how Canadians might normalize for children the country’s Medical Aid in Dying regime.
MAID is physician-assisted suicide, which, not very long ago, most of us would consider medical malpractice, or another M-word: murder. It is the current euphemism of choice, intended to make people feel more comfortable with doctors’ being called on to kill. It turns out that it is not only children who need some hand-holding to accept the unnatural and, frankly, downright evil. The former Hemlock Society, for example, an American right-to-die organization, is now known as Compassion & Choices. It wants you to believe that sometimes the only merciful thing in the face of suffering is to expedite death. Never mind that assisted suicide also saves money, and that it often preys on people at their most vulnerable.A major reporting piece in The Atlantic, “Canada Is Killing Itself,” ... should alarm Americans, too. During a panel discussion in Manhattan recently, a doctor explained that young trainees are increasingly wondering why suicide is taboo. We live in the day of “my body, my choice,” after all. So, who’s to say when suicide should be prevented? New York Governor Kathy Hochul is supposed to decide before the end of the year whether to sign a bill legalizing assisted suicide in the Empire State. I was in Albany on the day the state senate voted to pass the bill. Many of the Democrats who wound up voting for legalization acknowledged that, where assisted suicide is legal, there have been some reports of abuse. Calabro notes cases of individuals who are suffering from homelessness, mental illnesses, and even “hearing loss” who have requested or successfully applied for MAID in Canada.
Calabro’s piece describes many alarming cases. In one of them, a patient who wanted MAID was sad and alone. Until his family started visiting and realized that their absence was driving him to suicide. It was a wake-up call, and he no longer wanted to die. Another case involved a patient by himself in a rental apartment on a mattress on the floor. The doctor had to get on the floor to administer the poison. Not exactly a dignified or romantic send-off. And so the doctor — rather than find a way to make sure that people are of sound mind and have their medical needs met — founded a nonprofit called MAiDHouse! It’s an unmarked facility with all the creature comforts you would want for your planned end. Preferred lighting. A cry room for family members too queasy to hold your hand while you go. Discreet non-hearses come and go, according to schedule.
Last week, when The Atlantic piece was published, the Little Sisters of the Poor were in the news again in the United States. Despite their having won a religious-freedom case at the Supreme Court a few years ago, Pennsylvania is determined to make the Catholic nuns provide employees with contraception and abortion-inducing drug coverage. It has almost become a cultural obsession. These are women who have dedicated their lives to God and to the care of the elderly poor. I’ve heard testimonies of men and women who have felt like royalty when living in the care of the Little Sisters. My friend, Sister Constance Veit, told me that in her decades as a Little Sister, she never witnessed a patient ask to be killed. Perhaps that’s because their patients had felt loved, had their pain treated, and were made to feel that their lives have value. Even when confined to a hospital bed, individuals may still consider their life to be a gift because they have time to love and be loved.
The Beatles had the right idea. “All you need is love” might sound too simplistic for public policy, but it sure beats civilizational suicide. Last year, the Associated Press — which is not the Human Life Review — published a report titled “Committee reviewing euthanasia in Canada finds some deaths driven by homelessness fears, isolation.” And The Atlantic, of course, is no pro-life rag. These outlets might not even cover the annual March for Life in Washington, D.C. (Which happens to be one of the more inspiring rallies you’re ever going to see in the nation’s capital.) But even mainstream secular outlets are increasingly noticing the ways in which assisted suicide is going wrong. As long as we’re still noticing, there will never be enough pajama parties in funeral homes or coffin-painting art therapy sessions that might make it seem normal.
This column is based on one available through Andrews McMeel Universal’s Newspaper Enterprise Association.