Canada’s Obsession with Euthanasia - Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) Expansion

In this popular pity, we mark our gain in sensibility and our loss in vision. If other ages felt less, they saw more, even though they saw with the blind, prophetical, unsentimental eye of acceptance, which is to say, of faith. In the absence of this faith now, we govern by tenderness. It is a tenderness which, long since cut off from the person of Christ, is wrapped in theory. When tenderness is detached from the source of tenderness, its logical outcome is terror. It ends in force-labor camps and in the fumes of the gas chamber.

-Flannery O’Connor

Undermining Human Dignity and Sanctity of Life: A Critique of MAID's Inclusion of Substance Use Disorders

In spring 2024, Canada will allow medically assisted death for those with severe drug addictions. The Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) law, established in 2016, will be expanded to include individuals with substance use disorders, enabling them to seek medical help for euthanasia.

You can read in more detail about the MAID expansion at this link.

From a Christian theological and ethical standpoint, this legislative change is deeply troubling. It directly contradicts the non-negotiable Christian principles of human dignity and the sanctity of life.

MAID’s legislation and policy instantly brought to mind Walker Percy's The Thanatos Syndrome, where the unforgettable character of Father Smith serves as a vital antidote to the soulless, technocratic mindset that dominates the book's scientists. Through his intellectually charged dialogues with Dr. More, and his deeply reflective philosophical insights, Father Smith is a living challenge to our era's overreliance on technology and blind pursuit of progress—our society bows to a soulless utilitarianism.

In a climactic moment near the end of The Thanatos Syndrome, Father Smith offers a searing critique during the hospice center's reopening ceremony. He declares, “The Great Prince Satan, the Depriver, is here […] It is not your fault that he, the Great Prince, is here. But you must resist him […] Do you know where tenderness leads? Tenderness leads to the gas chamber […] Never in the history of the world have so many civilized tenderhearted souls as have lived in this century. Never in the history of the world have so many people been killed.”

Father Smith's caustic words serve as a stark warning against a misguided form of compassion that can descend into malevolence. By invoking "The Great Prince Satan, the Depriver," he alludes to a malevolent force that can corrupt even the most well-intentioned actions. He argues that this malevolent force is not necessarily the fault of those present but insists on the moral imperative to resist it.

His unsettling association of "tenderness" with "the gas chamber" is a caution against a superficial compassion that can justify grave evils in the name of humane treatment or progress. It's a critique of a kind of tenderness that lacks moral substance, one that can make people complicit in atrocity while believing they are acting with kindness.

Fr. Smith’s historical assessment—“Never in the history of the world have so many civilized tenderhearted souls as have lived in this century…Never in the history of the world have so many people been killed”—serves as a damning indictment against the paradox of a society that prides itself on civility and compassion yet has perpetrated unprecedented scales of violence and death.

In essence, Father Smith's words serve as a moral wake-up call, urging us to critically examine our own ethical frameworks and compelling us to recognize the potential for evil in even the most 'compassionate' acts, if they are detached from an ethical grounding in the sanctity of human life. Yes, Percy’s words are prescient regarding the recent expansion of Canada's Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) law.

Firstly, the sheer audacity to claim that one has the compassionate choice to end human life is a frontal assault on the very concept of the inviolability of human life. It completely defies the Fifth Commandment, "You shall not murder," as articulated in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 2277). What message is this sending? That life, when marred by suffering or addiction, becomes discardable? This is a chilling proposition that flies in the face of Catholic teaching and, indeed, of any ethically sound human society.

Any legislation that claims to offer compassionate choice is a horrendous misreading of what compassion means, especially in the face of human suffering. The Church has long held that suffering, though a mystery, can have redemptive qualities when united with Christ’s suffering. To espouse medically assisted death as a form of compassion is to strip suffering of its transformative and redemptive potential, denigrating the Cross and the hope of resurrection.

What's even more insidious is the scandal this could cause. Think of the message this sends to the vulnerable, to those on the brink, who might now see death as a legitimate option because the law says it is. This is not just a moral failure but a catastrophic societal one. Christ’s command to care for the 'least among us' (Matthew 25:40) is being brazenly flouted.

And let us not be naive about these so-called strict safeguards. Such safety measures never mitigate the core issue: that the law facilitates an intrinsic evil. Do we really trust a bureaucratic system to hold the line against the slippery slope towards an even more permissive culture of death? Catholics are obligated to resist cooperation with evil, and no amount of 'safeguarding' can change the intrinsically evil nature of euthanasia.

Finally, it is deplorable that society is choosing to facilitate death instead of focusing on life-affirming healthcare and social services for those battling addictions or suffering from mental disorders. Where is the collective social conscience? The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church calls us to be our brother's keeper, not his executioner.

This legislation deeply contradicts Christian values and those of any person with good intentions. It shifts from genuine care to a mere assessment of life's 'quality', neglecting the most vulnerable. The Church must speak out against this clear breach of human dignity and respect for life.

The Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et spes) is worth reading—particularly §27:

[…] Furthermore, whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia or willful self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where men are treated as mere tools for profit, rather than as free and responsible persons; all these things and others of their like are infamies indeed. They poison human society, but they do more harm to those who practice them than those who suffer from the injury. Moreover, they are supreme dishonor to the Creator.

As followers of Christ, we are morally obligated to extend our sense of neighborliness to every individual we meet—even those steeped in addiction. This encompasses the neglected elderly, the stigmatized foreign worker, displaced refugees, children suffering due to circumstances beyond their control, and those plagued by hunger whose very presence pricks our conscience, reminding us of Christ's words, "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40).

Walker Percy's The Thanatos Syndrome provides an instructive lens through which to view this immoral quagmire. Just as Father Smith serves as a conscience against the impersonal, technocratic ethos that threatens to supplant genuine moral reasoning in the novel, so too must we be critics and moral arbiters in the face of this deeply flawed legislation. Father Smith's cautionary words about the corrosive effects of a misguided compassion that can ultimately lead to "the gas chamber" should ring in our ears as we consider the implications of a law that undermines the inviolable dignity of the human person for the sake of alleged 'compassion.'

As Christians, we are morally compelled to stand against this dehumanizing trend and work tirelessly to affirm the sacredness of every human life. Note that euthanasia is gaining traction in the U.S.—it's at the forefront of policy discussions in the United States. Our theological and moral traditions provide us with the resources to critique, confront, and offer substantive alternatives to such life-denying policies. This is not a call for passive dissent but for active, faith-filled resistance. Once again, it is imperative to recall Christ's words, "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40). Our treatment of the most vulnerable among us is, ultimately, a reflection of our relationship with God Himself.