What do you think of when you hear about physician-assisted suicide? Probably nothing, as even that euphemistic phrase has been retired in favor of even murkier feel-good terms. In the U.S., advocates will call it “death with dignity.” But in Canada, it’s even cuter and more cuddly. When you want your doctor’s help to kill yourself, you can just ask for MAID service! That is “Medical Aid in Dying.”
Whether you approve or disapprove of such protocols, the issue probably brings to mind images of old people in hospice, or wasted, skeletal cancer patients who want to escape agonizing pain. To be sure, there are plenty of cases of this kind of suffering at the end of life, and people like this have been used as examples of why allowing doctors to prescribe lethal drugs is kind and humane. Many disagree entirely, but it’s at least understandable that someone who weighs 85 pounds in stage 4 liver cancer would want to end their suffering.
But what about your teenager? Should your depressed and moody 16-year-old be able to get “help” to kill herself? Canada thinks so. If I hadn’t seen this myself, I’m not sure I would have believed it, but it appears to be true. An X user named Jasmin Laine has posted a picture of a brochure found at a medical center in the province of Manitoba:
The brochure, from the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, appears to be against the legalization of doctor-assisted suicide, thank goodness, but how could such an idea ever have been floated? According to the pamphlet, “A mature minor is a child or teen who is deemed capable of making a choice for [doctor-assisted suicide]. This would essentially remove the minimum age of eligibility.” It further claims that a committee of doctors making recommendations suggested the parents’ consent may not even be necessary!
This really shouldn’t shock, as Canada has been aggressively expanding its regime of patient-killing doctors. Originally restricted only to the terminally ill, doctor-provided suicide is set to be legal for the mentally in Canada beginning in 2027. Some people have asked for their doctors to help kill them because they believe they’re a burden on their families and society.
Here’s a sample of reactions to Jasmin Laine’s post:
