Canada has gained a lot of attention in recent years due to its commitment to Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), its preferred idiom for euthanasia. Some honor Canada as groundbreaking in its commitment to bringing dignity to death, while others abhor it as taking advantage of the weak, the elderly, and the vulnerable. Already euthanasia is responsible for more than 5% of deaths in Canada and the rates are rising fast.
Behind every death by euthanasia is a story, and the stories are tragic. Elderly people who live in care homes will have breakfast with a friend in the morning, then learn at lunchtime that they were euthanized shortly thereafter. Grown children are being asked to attend a celebration of life service for parents who are still alive but intend to die shortly thereafter. People who want to live but cannot get access to sufficient medical care are taking their own lives rather than continue suffering. People vulnerable to suggestion are being pressured to just end it all by those who should be caring for them. The guardrails are already lax and growing laxer all the time. As far as I know, no doctor has been charged, much less convicted, of any wrongdoing despite thousands and thousands of deaths.
One of the most interesting facts about euthanasia in Canada is that it is unevenly distributed across the population so that the majority of those who request it are white. Though Canada has millions of people whose origins are Indian, African, Chinese, and a host of other backgrounds, it is predominantly white Westerners who desire and pursue it.1
Why is this? Because two of the foremost cultural values of Western society are autonomy and independence. Autonomy is the ability to self-rule and to make one’s own decisions, while independence is the state of being self-reliant and neither needing others nor being dependent upon them. Because aging and death are the ultimate means through which we prove we have no true autonomy and through which we lose our independence, euthanasia is a means of avoiding what is difficult, humiliating, or seemingly intolerable. In this way, euthanasia is a natural or perhaps inevitable result of Western culture.
It is a tragedy that the culture has primed people to accept something that ought to be unacceptable and to embrace something that ought to be unembraceable. It is a tragedy that many people would rather die than ask for help or end their lives rather than depend upon their children. It is equally tragic that many children would rather their parents die than have to care for them.
Though this is already plenty troubling, here is something that troubles me even more: Having been raised in this society, my instincts intuitively accept euthanasia. I do not want others to make my decisions for me and I do not wish to become dependent upon them. In fact, I would feel a significant degree of guilt were I to need others to care for me, to be inconvenienced on my behalf, or to have them put their own dreams on hold in order to ensure my provision. There is an abhorrent way in which it all just makes sense, in which my instincts accept it as good, or as acceptable, at least.
Of course, I utterly reject euthanasia. I support efforts to outlaw it on a national level and efforts to counsel against it on a personal level. But I still get it. I still understand why it’s so attractive and so widely accepted. It’s just part of my cultural heritage, part of the air I have breathed since my childhood.
And if it is widely accepted now, I fear we haven’t seen anything yet. The generation ahead of mine—the Boomer generation—is reaching its final years, and already I hear more and more stories of them choosing euthanasia ahead of a natural death. I have no doubt that many of the people I love—acquaintances, friends, family members—will die at a time of their own choosing. In most cases, I expect to simply be told one day that they are gone, though in some cases I may be asked to attend some kind of pre-death service or celebration.
Has anyone written about how Christians are to respond when asked to attend such an event? Is it right to attend a loved one’s death when that death is being administered by a doctor and considered an act of mercy? Should we stand quietly by as witnesses or supporters when a person’s final act is an act of defiance against God? Are we prepared to help grieving adult children whose parents rejected their counsel and pleas to instead choose MAiD? As Christians, we have answers to the big questions, but I don’t think we have thought much about the smaller ones.
May God have mercy on Canada, and may he have mercy on nations or states like Canada that are embracing a progressive agenda, for what is considered progressive is actually as backward and as oppressive as any society can be. It is merely a respectable form of cruelty, a modern form of barbarism. May God have mercy on our countries.
What is considered progressive is actually as backward and as oppressive as any society can be.
And may God have mercy on us. When this is the water we swim in, we need to be doubly sure we don’t drink it—that we don’t begin to catch the cultural vibe and begin to devalue life or believe that euthanasia is an act of mercy or dignity. It is actually an act of violence, an act of defiance against God, an act of cruelty against our fellow man.
May we instead be people who value life enough to be joyfully inconvenienced by others and who value humility enough to become willingly dependent upon others. May we be people who give up any thoughts of autonomy in matters of life and death and instead entrust ourselves to a faithful God who alone has such authority. May we stand strong against the cultural tide and prove ourselves to be people who truly value life.
- I believe between 96-98% of those who die by euthanasia are white. ↩︎
