BARCLAY: MAiD expansion is no longer about ‘dignity’ — it's about death

In 2016, Canada’s Liberal government legalized the pursuit of assisted suicide, under the pretense of compassion and the auspices of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD).Unfortunately, although the Liberal government emphatically assured all of Canada that ‘assisted dying’ would only be offered in extenuating circumstances and to the most isolated audiences, it is evident that the Liberal government has abandoned all pretext of measure or restraint for MAiD.Rather, it is clear that, over the course of the past decade, the Liberal government has ruthlessly expanded the criteria for MAiD and now promotes suicide as a solution to Canada’s most vulnerable communities. Firstly, the Liberal government has attempted to urge the elderly towards human euthanasia, in order to silently remedy the ‘looming burden’ of Canada’s rapidly aging population.For example, a diverse array of medical studies have sadly confirmed that “older adults accessing MAiD are distinct in that they…[lack] a predominant underlying diagnosis.” Furthermore, countless acclaimed medical professionals have reaffirmed that “the legalization of Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada has meaningfully changed how Canadians approach end-of-life and aging,” and various experts and studies now warn that senior Canadians are currently vastly over-represented throughout the MAiD program..In addition, a wide variety of data and research warns that the Canadian state presently “use[s] assisted dying" in order to “curb” the costs and burdens that the Liberal government has knowingly associated with the elderly. In fact, numerous data sets have repeatedly confirmed that, in Canada, “MAiD has already become … a form of elder care,” and that the victims of MAiD are "disproportionately elderly.”Moreover, the Liberal government ghoulishly preys upon the damaged and extends offers of MAiD to Canadians who suffer from ailments and physical injuries that are not fatal or at all intractable.For instance, various Canadians have been informed that suicide is a viable remedy for their “hopelessness, isolation, and loneliness,” and, in 2024, a “45-year-old patient suffering from inflammatory bowel disease and depression” was summarily executed after a casual interview outside a local Tim Hortons. Furthermore, in British Columbia (BC), an elderly woman’s “back pain” was used as the pretense for insistent, proactive proffers of MAiD, despite the fact that she subsequently recovered so comprehensively that she successfully “went on to climb a volcano.”In addition, countless brave veterans and members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) have been unexpectedly offered MAiD and abruptly forced to confront the looming spectre of suicide during their most vulnerable moments. In fact, Christine Gauthier, a retired corporal who actually competed for Canada at the 2016 Paralympics, “shocked MPs” when she testified that, although “she has been fighting for a home wheelchair ramp for five years,” she has already been proactively offered MAiD via "a letter saying that if you're so desperate, madam, we can offer you MAiD."Furthermore, the Liberal government has subtly started to broach the offer of assisted suicide and MAiD for any Canadian child who can even inadvertently be misconstrued as a ‘mature minor.’For example, in Quebec, “minors age 14 and over can [currently] decide on their own to stop certain types of life-saving care." Moreover, a cohort of shameless medical professionals and unscrupulous legal experts now reiterate the Liberal perspective that “utilizing age as a criterion for competency undermines both the need to respect dignity of mature minors” and regurgitate the tired claim that “the exclusion of mature minors from the MAiD legislation is an act of age discrimination.”.Worse still, in 2023, the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying declared that “minors should be eligible for assisted dying” and that Canada’s government should “evaluate Criminal Code provisions for assisted death for mature minors.” In fact, the Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying has explicitly recommended that “the Government of Canada amend the eligibility criteria for MAiD set out in the Criminal Code to include minors deemed to have the requisite decision-making capacity upon assessment.”Finally, since 2016, the Liberal government has made MAiD more accessible to every Canadian, in an effort to ferry increasing numbers of beleaguered Canadians towards a casual embrace of suicide.For instance, despite the Liberal government’s constant promises of a limited roll-out and death count, various reports and studies have confirmed that, since 2016, “MAiD has gone from exceptional to routine.” Furthermore, although MAiD is still in its most nascent stages, over 76,000 Canadians have now been victimized by the Liberal government’s progressive push for human suicide, and, in 2024, MAiD was quietly deemed responsible for “one in every 20 deaths” in Canada.In addition, the Canadian Parliament’s Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying has proposed 23 “recommendations to expand MAiD eligibility” and include an increasingly broad spectrum of demographics and tractable straits under the umbrella of MAiD. In fact, the Liberal government recently expanded the scope of MAiD’s acceptable targets, in order to encompass Canadians “with mental illness as a sole underlying condition,” and, in 2027, the Liberal government will begin to afford every person who is sufficiently depressed with an identical opportunity to embrace the simple silence of euthanasia.Unfortunately, it is evident that the Liberal government has abandoned all measures of decency in an effort to introduce every Canadian to the appeals of human euthanasia and the thrills associated with the Left.In fact, it is clear that, over the course of the past decade, the Liberal government has ruthlessly expanded the criteria for MAiD and now promotes suicide as a solution to Canada’s most vulnerable communities.More importantly, it is readily apparent that the Liberal government has publicly abandoned its most fundamental duty and now openly rejects the quintessential function of every state and society: Life.William Barclay is an award-winning political theorist and policy expert, as well as one of Canada’s leading conservative voices. Follow him on Twitter/X @WillBarclayPCBG.

BARCLAY: MAiD expansion is no longer about ‘dignity’ — it's about death

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