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“May we never hear another gutless church leader argue that, as believers, we cannot ‘legislate our morality’ on others. Obviously, with the growing decadence of the West — from transgender fanaticism to abortion-on-demand to this effort to legalize childhood euthanasia — morality is indeed being legislated.”
–JASON MATTERA
One of the hard truths that cannot be overlooked is how committed secular progressives are these days to destroying the next generation.
That’s not hyperbole.
If leftists cannot eradicate human life within the womb through unrestricted abortion, they are actively pushing today’s youth to become trans heroes by rendering their sexual organs impotent through chemical castration or irreversible surgeries.
And if neither of those pursuits pan out, environmental zealots stand ready and waiting to convince millions of couples that by forgoing parenthood altogether they can reduce their “carbon footprint” and “save” the planet.
Now, though, we have a new frontier opening up in the left’s culture of death: euthanizing minors.
Currently there are only two countries that grant adolescents access to assisted suicide, and those countries are the Netherlands and Belgium.
Our neighbor to the north, sadly, may soon join that sordid list.
For background, it’s been nearly a decade since Canada legalized assisted suicide after its Supreme Court decided that prohibitions against the practice violated the constitutional “rights” of its people, a “right,” it should be noted, previous Supreme Courts never found.
As a result, Canadians can obtain what’s called “medical assistance in dying,” or MAID, and that applies either to a “grievous and irremediable medical condition” where “natural death is reasonably foreseeable” or where a natural death is not considered imminent, yet the patient wishes to die anyway.
This year — actually, this month to be exact — doctor-assisted suicide was set to encompass mental disorders, like anxiety or depression, but the Canadian Parliament has postponed its implementation for at least another year.
If there had been a silver lining to Canada’s euthanasia policy, it was that those under the age of 18 were ineligible for the government death jab. The practice was reserved for adults only.
That policy, however, may soon change.
The Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying was launched in 2021, comprising members of the Senate and House of Commons, to review “outstanding important questions related to MAID,” like eligibility requirements, and to offer recommendations to Parliament that would reportedly improve and enhance the process.
Recently the Committee submitted a list of more than a dozen recommendations, one of which was to rescind the age-requirements, advising:
“That the Government of Canada amend the eligibility criteria for MAID [medical assistance in dying] set out in the Criminal Code to include minors deemed to have the requisite decision-making capacity upon assessment.”
The Committee confines this recommendation to what it describes as “mature minors,” although no exact age is given. Instead, they propose that the “Government of Canada undertake consultations with minors on the topic of MAID” as it moves forward to update the criminal code.
By the way, if the law is updated to incorporate minors, parents would have no say in the matter.
Quoth the report:
“Where appropriate, the parents or guardians of a mature minor be consulted in the course of the assessment process for MAID, but that the will of a minor who is found to have the requisite decision-making capacity ultimately take priority.” [Emphasis added]
Herein is another jolting reminder that parental rights, in the progressive worldview, are a mirage, even as it pertains to – literally – life and death decisions.
In what seemed like a moment of sanity, the panelists acknowledged that the human brain is “not fully developed until well into adulthood,” which could affect the “risk assessment and decision-making” of minors as they consider assisted-suicide.
But that sanity was short-lived because a few lines later the Committee declared that, despite this lack of “frontal lobe” development,” children inching closer to mortality “possess an uncommon level of maturity” and therefore could plan their own funerals if they desired to do so.
It gets worse.
One member expressed doubt over “the constitutionality of limiting MAID for mature minors to track one,” effectively leaving open the possibility that future adolescents could be euthanized on the “track two” schedule. That schedule permits euthanasia for illnesses that aren’t terminal, and would cover “mental disorders” starting next year.
This is the route Canada is heading, where the dignity and worth of its citizens are vaporized by the very government charged to protect both.
Whatever this system is, it is NOT health care.
As New York Times columnist Ross Douthat observed, “…the idea that a healing profession should include death in its battery of treatments” is an “inherently destructive” approach to medicine. “Left unchecked, they will forge a cruel brave new world, a dehumanizing final chapter for the liberal story.”
Besides the wanton appetite for abortion, what could be more dehumanizing than encouraging at-risk kids to kill themselves because adults in political power have concluded that their lives no longer have any value?
Canada euthanized more than 10,000 people in 2021 alone, and that number will skyrocket if juveniles are given the government green light to kill themselves with the medical establishment’s help.
So where does this leave us?
At the very least, may we never hear another gutless church leader argue that, as believers, we cannot “legislate our morality” on others. Obviously, with the growing decadence of the West — from transgender fanaticism to abortion-on-demand to this effort to legalize childhood euthanasia — morality is indeed being legislated.
There is no border when it comes to the aggressive tactics of the progressive left.
What happens in Canada will spill over here, as it has already.
We are far past the point where we must abandon the myth of a morally neutral civil government. If Christians care anything about protecting children, then the Church must start working earnestly to influence the direction of our land against the secular crusade that is determined to undermine our traditions and impose its death cult on the next generation.
Follow Jason on Twitter! @JasonMattera
Ready to dive deeper into the intersection of faith and policy? Head over to our Theology of Politics series page where we’ve published several long-form pieces that will help Christians navigate where their faith should direct them on political issues.
