Canada's MAID is Proof of a Post-Christian Era
Let me be clear, the topic of euthanasia is a complicated ethical subject, one we must all wrestle with.
On the one hand, I am a Christian, I am pro-life. No, not just anti-abortion, I am properly pro-life. I oppose the death penalty, unnecessary wars, cruel treatment of refugees, as well as (with hefty qualifications) opposing abortion, and compelling the dying to die. I am pro-life because I believe I must defend the voiceless and vulnerable, whether that is a baby in utero, a gay teenager in an Iranian prison, or a dementia patient in a nursing home.
But on the other hand, I have a lot of sympathy for advocates of euthanasia. I have a mother who has been slowly dying of a brain tumour for 22 years and it is heart-wrenching to watch her go through it. People rightly want to avoid chronic pain, debilitating illness, and loss of agency. Even if I might disagree, I recognize the validity of where those arguments are coming from. The cessation of suffering is a genuinely good thing to seek.
That said, I was very disturbed to read a recent poll that showed that most Canadians, especially young people, support wide and expansive Medical Assisted Dying (MAID).
Here is the money quote:
Half of Canadians would agree to allow adults in Canada to seek medical assistance in dying due to an inability to receive medical treatment (51%) or a disability (50%). Fewer than three-in-ten would consent to expand the guidelines to include homelessness (28%) or poverty (27%) as reasons to seek medical assistance in dying.
You can see the stats here, but let me summarize it for you!
A large proportion of Canadians, especially those under 35, think it is okay to euthanize someone who is disabled, homeless, or poor!
Forget LGBTIQ rights, Drag Queen Story Hour, or declining church attendance, as Tom Holland points out, a willingness to euthanize the poor and disabled, “this really IS post-Christian.”
Sweet Mother of Melchizedek! How did it come to this?
In order to understand Canada’s young people supporting wide and expansive euthanasia, you have to understand the three things about ethics in the post-Christian mind.
First, therapeutic scales of ethics. For people today, right and wrong is not determined by God, by duties, virtues, utilities, consequences, or anything like that. Rather, right and wrong are determined by a dichotomy of pleasure vs. pain. Pleasure is good and pain is bad. That’s it. If it feels good and does not directly harm anyone else, it is good. If it hurts, then ending the pain is the priority.
Second, personal autonomy is the number one commodity. In a highly individualized culture the rights and agency of the individual are always going to trump any collective or consequential view. My life, my body, my choice, that’s the gospel of modern ethical thinking.
Third, oppressor vs. oppressed. If you do not give people the chance to pursue pleasure and minimize pain, if you don’t give them agency and choice over their own lives, then you are the oppressor and they are the oppressed. The duality of ethical thinking is that everyone is either oppressor or oppressed.
I honestly don’t know how to persuade young people to become pro-life if this is how they think about ethical dilemmas, life, agency, and society. It is a system that is not post-Christian, it is anti-Christian ethics.
You end up with …
A situation where a disabled person in a wheelchair is offered MAID rather than a ramp for their house.
A system where there is one hotline to prevent suicide and another hotline to facilitate it.
A society where people with disabilities, unemployment, or depression are just one doctor’s note away from ending their lives without getting counseling or discussing it with loved ones.
If you are happy to see the disabled disappear, make the dying die, and erase the homeless and impoverished because, in a moment of suffering or vulnerability, that is what they say they want, there’s not much I can say to convince you. Our systems of ethical reasoning are incommensurable.
As Stanley Hauerwas famous said:
"I think the first thing we need to do is to say that we are not going to kill our children or our grandparents. That should be uncontroversial. If the only thing the church did was to keep people from killing their children and grandparents, we would have done a great service to the world."
Amen!
What about you? Have you ever had to wrestle with euthanasia for family members? What do you think of the situation in Canada? Are you in Canada? Do you agree with my diagnosis of why people are so affirming of euthanasia?
Thanks Michael - thought-provoking.
Their policy should not be called MAID (seems euphemistic and obfuscatory), but MAD, an acronym which sums it up a lot better.
The Netherlands also provides a fascinating and disturbing case study for the slippery slope of a 'permissive' approach euthanasia.
US American here. I’m right there with you on being “properly pro-life.” I’m probably more anti-violence than you are.
I think your assessment is good.
I think Christians need to take more responsibility for the state of affairs in our post-Christian world. Personal autonomy is good, but we as Christians need to take personal responsibility for those suffering just as seriously. What are we doing to ease the pain so many are seeking to end? Have we left too much to the government?