Canada’s Euthanasia's Spiral: A Critical Chance to Stop the Madness
My latest MAiD op-ed is featured in The Federalist
The Federalist, which broke major news in the US political world this past week, picked up my article about Canada’s expanding euthanasia regime. I’m grateful for the opportunity.
The article was trending as the #3 article on the site, which was exciting to see.
The article asks, “What do Dilbert creator Scott Adams and MP Andrew Lawton have in common?”
Both men wanted to die. One had a terminal illness, the other a treatable mental health condition.
They got help, which gave them both a longer lease on life. But both had plotted their own deaths.
It’s a cautionary tale for us, in Canada, as medical assistance in dying (MAiD) sets to expand to include mental health as a sole condition in 2027.
I’ve provided an excerpt from the article below. You can read it in its entirety on The Federalist.
The big takeaway: People turn down euthanasia when they have other options.
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A excerpt from my article on The Federalist
Scott Adams, the famous and often controversial author of the comic strip Dilbert, recently disclosed that he planned to end his life due to the pain of his untreatable cancer diagnosis.
In May, he announced that he only expected to live a few more months. At the time, alternative treatments were no help. He scheduled his suicide with his medical team for June 29.
In California, where Adams lives, medical assistance in dying (MAiD) is legal. Adams didn’t go through with his plan, though. He cancelled the appointment when a hormone blocking treatment started to relieve the intolerable pain. While a terminal cancer diagnosis remains, this alternative treatment extended his life.
Euthanasia wasn’t the answer. When given another option, he chose not to end his life.
A tale of two MAiD systems
Canada, like California, legalized doctor-assisted suicide in 2016. Both Canada and California have approximately the same population, but 15 times more Canadians die by MAiD than Californians. That’s because in California, a doctor gives the lethal drug to the patient, but the patient must administer the drug, taking their own life.
In Canada, the patient can administer the drug or have the doctor inject the life-ending cocktail of drugs. Canadians pick their doctor almost every time freeing themselves of the stigma of suicide but getting the same, unalterable result.
In 2023 alone, 15,343 Canadians had their doctor end their lives, an increase of over 15% since 2022. Among these were patients—622 human souls—whose deaths were not imminent, who had other options.
A main reason these individuals requested euthanasia was due to a disability. They cited loneliness and that they felt like a burden in their reasons given for requesting to die, leading one expert conclude this isn’t dying with dignity, but “social murder.”
Like Adams’ quirky cartoon strip, which pokes fun a that ineptitude of bureaucracy there’s a new chapter unfolding in Canada’s euthanasia regime that one can only wish was a joke. But it’s not, and it could cost tens of thousands of lives in the near future.
