Canada published a 26-page activity book for children between 6-12 years old in order to educate them about their nationally funded euthanasia program, euphemistically named Medically Assistance in Dying (MAiD). The book is not intended for children seeking to suicide, as Canadian law does not permit minors to take part in the program. It is, rather, “for young people who have someone in their life who may have MAiD”. The book describes euthanasia in terms that are mechanistic and morally neutral, saying it is the use of medicine to stop a “person’s body from working.”
The book tells the children that euthanasia is a final measure intended to be used for consenting adults afflicted with an illness or disability that “hurts their body or their mind so much that it feels too hard to keep living.” According to the book (page 6), this includes people who are disabled.
“The illness or disability may have made it so that they cannot enjoy life or do the things they have always loved to do,” the book says. “It may have made it too hard to keep living even though they care a lot about the people in their lives.”
Children are instructed not to attempt to change the mind of a family member who has chosen suicide. “As much as other people may want to change their mind, the person who is choosing MAID probably wishes just as strongly that they could change their illness or condition and how it is affecting their life,” it reads.
Bioethics writer Wesley J. Smith criticized the booklet as potentially damaging to children:
“The whole euthanasia agenda is gut-wrenching, morally destructive, and wrong,” Smith wrote in National Review. “It not only ends the life of despairing people who are abandoned by the “It’s your choice” deflection, but as this book illustrates, has the potential to seriously impact the emotional well-being of children in the family who watch as their loved one’s killing is discussed, planned, and executed.”
“If I were a kid and that happened to somebody I loved, I’d never want to see a doctor again,” Smith added.
Canada’s voluntary euthanasia program called Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) became legal in 2016. The program is part of Canada’s healthcare system. To receive euthanasia, patients experiencing intolerable suffering must sign a written request expressing their wish to end their life. In 2021, more than 10,000 people chose euthanasia, an increase of over 32% from the previous year, accounting for 3.3% of all deaths in Canada.
According to the latest report on Medical Assistance in Dying from Health Canada, 17.3% of people also cited “isolation or loneliness” as a reason for wanting to die. In 35.7% of cases, patients believed that they were a “burden on family, friends or caregivers”.
Though the Canadian program is described as “Dying With Dignity”, the government has a financial interest in promoting medically assisted suicide. According to a study published in the Journal of the Canadian Medical Association, doctor-assisted death could lower annual healthcare spending across the nation by between $34.7 million and $136.8 million.
Assisted suicide is becoming normalized in Canadian society. Last month, the Canadian clothing retailer Simons took down a commercial it had commissioned celebrating what it called the “hard beauty” of assisted suicide. It later emerged that the woman featured in the ad, Jennyfer Hatch, had sought MAID only after the B.C. medical system failed to provide her with appropriate care for a rare disease.
All countries that have legalized euthanasia have government-funded universal health care.
Assisted suicides are prohibited by the Noahide Law which prohibits the spilling of blood. This is based on a verse in Genesis.
Whoever sheds the blood of man, By man shall his blood be shed; For in His image Did Hashem make man. Genesis 9:6
Rabbi Halperin, whose Science and Technology Torah Law Institute investigates modern technology within a religious Jewish framework, explained how Jewish law relates to euthanasia.
“In Judaism, there is no difference between morality and Torah law,” Rabbi Halperin said. “What others call morality is how Jews serve God. This especially includes difficult life and death decisions, what we call the sanctity of life. Life is holy, the holiest thing in the world, because it is through life that we serve God.”
Rabbi Halperin explained that the decision to end life was not in the purview of humans.
“Life belongs to God and He is the only one who decides when it begins and when it ends,” he remarked. “So even a person who is in a vegetative state, his soul being in the world increases the Glory of Heaven that is in the world.”
The rabbi explained that by choosing to take a life, man is not only “playing God but is actually usurping the kingship of God.”
“Morality that is not based in the Torah is selective, placing Man at the top, in the decision-making role,” Rabbi Halperin said. “A person can destroy his own property or tell someone else to destroy it because it is his property to do with as he chooses. In selective morality, if a man chooses to end his life, since it is his life, he is within his right to do so.”
“But if you believe that the essence of life is the soul that was placed there by God, and that belongs to him, is part of him, then taking life is the worst crime possible.”
Rabbi Halperin explained that Jewish law was clear on this issue with no gray areas.
“It is absolutely forbidden under any condition to remove someone from life-saving measures, even if he is suffering, even if he requests it,” he said. “Similarly, it is forbidden to withhold normal treatment, or food and water, and medicine, that will extend his life. These things are murder, plain and simple. You can pray for his suffering to end but you cannot actively end it.”
“If a person has a chance to live after resuscitation or CPR, even if he will be disabled, then every effort must be made to lengthen his life,” he further said. “But if there is no chance for him to return to life, if he will for sure never return to consciousness, then there is no necessity to resuscitate the person.”
