Canada’s tide of death keeps rising

“Slippery slope” no longer adequately describes what’s happening when it comes to the medically approved killing of Canadians. We’re standing on a cliff edge that’s being eroded with a fire hose.

Let Canada’s euthanasia timeline serve as a lesson for any other country so naïve as to think that legalizing assisted suicide will remain limited to a few compassionate cases and not turn into all-out assault on every vulnerable citizen – babies and children, the depressed and lonely, the homeless, and even those who fear they might be homeless one day.

People are queuing for lethal injections in Canada because they see themselves as having no options or support. Filled with fear, they would rather be euthanized than face the pain or uncertainty their life holds.

Just last month the Quebec College of Physicians’ called for euthanasia for babies “born with severe and grave syndromes.” This week an attempt to head off such depravity was rejected when the Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities voted down a motion to condemn the Quebec doctors’ proposal.

And the tide of death keeps rising. As Terry O’Neill writes, the federal government is now clearly intent on offering euthanasia to Canadians suffering from mental illness.

Since the introduction of legalized killing six years ago, Canadian journalists have refused to report on the shocking growth of euthanasia or the tragic stories behind every death. Now they’re being left behind by international media who are drawing attention to the explosion of euthanasia in Canada. Major newspapers and magazines around the world are now reporting on the heartbreaking stories of Canadians ending their lives for reasons that have nothing to do with the original circumstances for legalizing euthanasia.

Writing in The Catholic Register, Anne Farrow cites numerous examples of coverage by international media who recognize news when they see it. Forbes, the Associated Press, The Spectator, The New York Times, and The Washington Post are drawing attention to appalling stories like a woman asking for euthanasia because she can’t afford treatment for her chronic pain, another women receiving an assisted death because she couldn’t afford to move somewhere where she could manage her crippling allergies, and a man who requested euthanasia because he suffers from chronic back pain and fears being homeless.

Canadians remain oblivious to what’s going on. The only way to learn about these stories in Canada is to subscribe to alternative media or to follow organizations that are working to draw attention to our euthanasia crisis.

So it was timely this week when a friend brought to my attention a book titled The Lion of Münster. Father Daniel Utrecht, a priest of the Oratory of St Philip Neri in Toronto, writes about Bl. Clemens August von Galen, the bishop of the Diocese of Münster in Germany from 1933 to 1946 and the first diocesan bishop consecrated during Hitler’s regime.

Bishop von Galen became known for speaking out against the Nazis, challenging them on everything from the “neopaganism of the national socialist ideology” to their euthanasia program. For speaking out his residence was bombed and he had to flee Munster.

In 1946 he was made a cardinal. He died soon after the end of the Second World War but is remembered for standing up to political authorities despite the personal risk it posed.

More than 75 years later, Forbes magazine has written an article with the chilling headline “Canada’s New Euthanasia Laws Carry Upsetting Nazi-Era Echoes, Warns Expert.”

It should come as no surprise that Archbishop Miller, speaking at the White Mass for health workers last month, warned that the medical profession may be called to conscientious objection as it works to promote palliative care.

As our society becomes increasingly comfortable with eliminating the lives of the vulnerable at any age and increasingly for any reason, I wonder how many people will even notice when the cliff is completely gone from under them.

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