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One Ontario man in the early stages of Alzheimer’s wants the law changed to permit an “advanced directive,” since he will be unable to comply with the law’s confirmation requirements later on.
The Alzheimer Society of Canada offered an obvious objection: “How will you protect [people with Alzheimer’s]? … to make sure that [they’re] not vulnerable to decision-makers?” After all, it’s possible that “someone could be transformed by dementia and become someone new—with a greater tolerance for incapacity and a different definition of a meaningful life.”
The man from Ontario replied, “I have dementia. I’m still a Canadian citizen. I have full rights. I want those rights.” And he’s willing to sue to “protect” those rights. Since the right to MAID is, in large measure, a creation of the Supreme Court of Canada, I wouldn’t bet against him.
The second story concerns an article in “The Journal of Medical Ethics,” written by three Canadian doctors, which makes the case for extending MAID to minors. Children.
As Wesley J. Smith notes in National Review, the goal of these doctors is to “normalize” euthanizing children and “reduce the stigma” by calling the killing “a procedure.” Accordingly, the authors emphasized the need to hide the identities of those killing children from the public. And, they argued against requiring parental permission—or even parental notification if it were against the child’s wishes.
This is right out of “The Man in the High Castle.”
As Smith asks, “Can you imagine visiting your sick child, only to learn that hospital doctors killed her because she asked to die and wanted you kept in the dark? The rage and agony would be unimaginable.”
The rage and agony might be unimaginable, but the scenario isn’t. It represents the logic and worldview that makes euthanasia possible: the belief that some lives are more worthy of life than others.
Once you accept that principle, people will eventually forget why they were originally repulsed by the idea of killing children and those with a disability. And when they arrive at the hospital only to find their loved one’s room empty, they’ll tell themselves, “Oh, well. He had his rights.”