Canada goes MAD for euthanasia

When the Supreme Court of Canada overturned the country’s assisted suicide law last year, it didn’t take long for its implications to become apparent.

The court ruled that it was unconstitutional to deny the “right” to assisted death to persons with serious and incurable illnesses. A little more than a year later, legal medically assisted suicide arrived in Canada for adults suffering from a grievous and irremediable medical condition.

Pressure immediately mounted for the law to include youth and the mentally ill. Many euthanasia advocates want to compel physicians, nurses and other health-care workers to participate or, at the very least, provide “effective referral” to a doctor willing to provide euthanasia.

Furthermore, despite the fact that no Canadian hospital is able to provide every available medical procedure, there are demands for all hospitals (especially Catholic ones) to commit to making “medically assisted dying” available — including in palliative care wards — or lose their government funding.

In some ways, Canada has gone MAD for Medically Assisted Dying.

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