Euthanasia and the Cheap View of Life

“Youth almost unimpaired till sixty, and then, crack! the end.”

So speaks a character in Brave New World about euthanasia. Among the many horrors of Aldous Huxley’s fictional dystopian society is a cheap view of life.

Citizens of the “World State” are not born, they are “decanted” from vats in “hatcheries,” they live surrounded by every pleasure they desire, kept looking youthful, then euthanized at the age of 60, at which point their corpses are harvested for phosphorous to “make plants grow.”

Many have referred to Brave New World as “prophetic,” and they are not far off the mark.

Consider a recent report from the group The New Atlantis showing widespread malpractice in Canada’s euthanasia program.

The New Atlantis discovered that Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program has been the subject of hundreds of abuses. More specifically, the group states that government officials in Ontario have “thus far counted over 400 apparent [MAID] violations — and have kept this information from the public and not pursued a single criminal charge, even against repeat violators and ‘blatant’ offenders.”

One of those violations is a botched euthanasia conducted by a Dr. Eugenie Tjan, who conducted an operation “without being adequately prepared,” according to Canada’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Tjan, among other misdemeanors, used “the wrong drugs,” making the patient and their family “suffer tremendously,” as described by one Canadian regulator.

Nor do the infractions stop there. A total of 428 cases of “compliance issues” with criminal law and regulations took place over several years. Among these “issues” were individuals with dementia being euthanized even though they were unable to credibly give consent, as well as practitioners reporting that they euthanized patients despite not being “experts in the illness that caused the person’s suffering, and no outside expert was consulted — violating a safeguard mandated by federal criminal law,” as noted by The New Atlantis.

This criminal recklessness should not surprise us. Since Canada legalized euthanasia in 2016, almost 45,000 Canadians have been euthanized at the hands of MAID officials, roughly the population of a small town. Once you violate such a significant taboo and on such a large scale, what’s the big deal in going one step further and killing a dementia patient who can’t reasonably say “yes”?  Showing scruples at that point would be like robbing someone’s family heirlooms but being careful not to leave any mud on the floor.

Euthanasia’s advocates and practitioners know that what they do is a monstrous crime, which is why they need to “suppress the truth” in “unrighteousness,” as Paul notes (Romans 1:18), and why they use euphemistic language to describe what is, in effect, murder. It’s why the Canadian government decided to give its euthanasia program the Orwellian name of “MAID.”

The very term “Euthanasia” is Greek for “good death,” an ironic expression that all of those wrongfully killed in Ontario might disagree with.

The insanity is not limited to Canada. Consider the case of the Swiss-made Sarco suicide pod, the so-called “Tesla of euthanasia,” which invites victims into a sleek, bright-colored “death machine” that provides them with a “peaceful, even euphoric” death by rapidly pumping nitrogen into their lungs. Or the advocates who refer to euthanasia by nice-sounding bromides like “death with dignity” or a “right to die.”

This begs the question — would the same advocates for a “right to die” rejoice at the high rate of suicide among American veterans or at the number of people killing themselves with opioids? Would they egg on a desperate, unhappy teen Googling the most painless ways to off himself? If they would recoil at such obvious horrors, the question is, why would they approve of measures like Canada’s MAID or Switzerland’s Sarco?

The flourishing of advocacy for a “right to die” can only happen in a world that sees human existence as something cheap. It is no coincidence that 80 percent of Canadians support abortion — merely another symptom of a disease that sees life as some toy to be cast aside as soon as you are bored of or bothered by it, whether that life belongs to an unborn baby or a disabled or homeless person.

The cure to this low view of life is a high view of God. He is the One who grants us our earthly existence and He is the only One who can determine when to end it. A Christian realizes that life is a wonderful gift from God. As the Psalmist rejoices: “Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them” (Psalm 139:16).  

How different this vision of peace is from the horrors and abuses of Canada’s MAID and other euthanasia programs all over the world. As Christians, we must pray that Western leaders and medical practitioners repent of this evil and turn back to God’s better way.

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