Dying Canada
Canada’s assisted suicide mess does not seem to get the level of coverage that it deserves, on either side of our northern border.
At their What the Hell Is Going On podcast, co-hosts Daniella Pletka and Marc Thiessen interview freelance reporter Alexander Raikin about the details of the Canadian “Medical Assistance in Dying” (MAiD) system—and it is jaw-dropping. While I strongly recommend a listen, the content is quite disturbing, even if it isn’t graphic.
The episode’s blurb captures the gist of the interview well:
Canada’s euthanasia protocol – not merely doctor assisted suicide, but specifically euthanasia – is among the most expansive in the world. The euthanasia program, called Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) was enacted in 2016 and was, at its inception, already broad: in 2021 it accounted for 3.3% of all deaths in Canada, which is over 27 people per day, and eligibility included not just those with foreseeable death but also those with disabilities – like hearing loss. Now, Parliament is gearing up to expand the eligibility further, to include those with mental illness and even minors. For context, this makes Canada more accepting to euthanasia than the German public in 1933 under the Nazi regime. Not to mention, the deeper insidious motivation for an increasing number of MAiD cases in Canada: a social welfare network so threadbare that Canadian citizens would rather die than face abject poverty on top of a shambolic healthcare system.
A transcript of the episode is also available at the link.
While they mention the forced euthanasia program of the Nazis by way of comparison, they don’t examine the eugenics programs rolled out in democratic, Anglophone societies a century ago, at the height of the eugenics scientific fad.
In the United States, Australia, and Canada, governments attempted to use what they sincerely believed was the benevolent force of central government, implementing what they held for the best science available, to “modernize” indigenous populations through programs of mandatory sterilization and child internment to drive “backward” primitive folkways out of those communities for their own good. Some Native Americans were sterilized with the aim of cleaning up the gene pool, it was said. Tribal children were taken from their families and sent to boarding schools to teach them modern ways in the United States and Canada, to eliminate their primitive culture. Australian aborigines were subjected to similar programs.
There was something of a late 20th Century reckoning with this past in many of those places, but how can such damage possibly be undone? Damage to fragile cultures endures. The children who were prevented by sterilization never grew up to pass on their own genes, either, much less their cultural heritage. And so forth.
This left me wondering how future generations will deal with the damage done by the present euthanasia system. When will that reckoning come, if it comes at all?
To describe MAiD in other words: A free society that gave up the death penalty as too inhumane now actively encourages free and law-abiding citizens to accept medically assisted suicide for conditions the state admits it cannot cure or otherwise ameliorate, including chronic illness, old-age infirmity—even deafness, PTSD, depression, homelessness, and so on. It’s unfathomable. It’s a declaration of bankruptcy for a modern liberal welfare state that has decided to accept its own failure.
I wonder if the billionaire activist (mentioned in the podcast) who pushed the policy by lobbying the Canadian government could succeed at this in the U.S.
My God, I hope it wouldn't succeed.
I am pretty much pro ife, if polItically I am prochoice about abortion because I think it is up to the woman to decide...
Anti Euthanasia, which most likely came from my parents Pro life activities, as that was part of the ideology. I In the tenth grade for a class assignment I did a debate about euthanasia and why I don't approve. ( there are numerous reasons, but ,one, I think it is playing "God", and feel the same about capital punishment, plus it is slippery slope and what Canada is doing sounds like I was right about slippery slope, are we going to start killing people who aren't perfect etc, and will it lead to creating "perfect people", and homogenizing the populace?")..but, also, I don't approve of Capital Punishment either, and pretty pacifist about wars while recognizing some times there are no other choices.
I am having the day from hell, the snow storm we were expected to get never happened, but, I woke up with back pain ( has to be the atmospheric pressure...lol) so bad I couldn't stand up, and I have spent most of the day on the phone with the Boss, and various areas at the bank to fix an issue with wiring money to Canada...I think it is resolved, no one seems to know for sure. However as a treat for this awful day I am ordering take out pizza of my veggie pizza with garlic butter sauce...yum...lol
And Hello everyone...TGIF
As someone who loves podcasts, I wanted to share this with Chris Stirewalt fans. I’m forgetting where I saw that he has a weekly podcast with Eliana Johnson, “Ink Stained Wretches.” I’m about halfway through this one, and really enjoying it:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ink-stained-wretches/id1573974244?i=1000603572176