Recently, I came across a headline: “Euthanasia Fifth-Leading Cause of Death in Canada.” National Review; Read Article Here
By euthanasia, the article is primarily referring to Canada’s comprehensive legal framework for assisted suicide called Medical Assistance in Dying or euphemistically, “MAiD.” Pause for a moment and think about the phrase: “the Fifth leading cause of death.” With its government sponsored Maid in place, our northern neighbor, Canada, has become a leading purveyor of euthanasia and assisted suicide in the West, second only to the Netherlands.
In mulling over this statistic, my thoughts turned first to a Scripture in Isaiah and then to the opening lyrics of an old Beatle song from 1967, A Day in the Life. Isaiah 28 speaks of a “covenant with death.” The prophet Isaiah brings a chilling word from the Lord to the leaders in Jerusalem who seek to avoid God’s coming judgment in the form of Assyrian invasion by relying on deception and foreign political alliances. He tells a cautionary tale of their “covenant with death.”
15 You boast, “We have entered into a covenant with death, with the realm of the dead we have made an agreement. When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by, it cannot touch us, for we have made a lie our refuge and falsehood our hiding place.”
The leaders of Canada, in constructing the legal apparatus for government assisted suicide have made their own “covenant with death.” True, it differs from that of Judah in that Judah was trying to escape God’s judgment by making alliances with Egypt and other foreign powers while Canada now seeks to promote rather than escape death. Nevertheless, it’s a deal with the grave founded on falsehood.
The second, John Lennon’s depressing song, A Day in the Life , opens with a matter of fact scene of a man committing suicide in public:
I read the news today, oh boy
About a lucky man who made the grade
And though the news was rather sad
Well, I just had to laugh
I saw the photograph
He blew his mind out in a car
He didn’t notice that the lights had changed
A crowd of people stood and stared
They’d seen his face before
Nobody was really sure if he was from the House of Lords.
Lennon’s lyrics go on to tell the story of living in a meaningless world. Ending on a “happier” note, he invites the listener to take refuge with him, not in suicide, but in another lie, the fantasy world of drugs, saying: “I’d love to turn you on.”
So too, when I read the news of the fifth leading cause of death in Canada, though I didn’t laugh; I was tempted to treat it as just another matter of fact statistic about suicide. But is it? I think not. Canada’s ever expanding euthanasia policies are a cautionary tale of a culture that has moved from promoting life to one of promoting death on demand- a society attempting to make its own “ covenant with death.”
So how did Canada get here? That’s a longer story with many factors, but one factor, reminiscent of Judah in Isaiah’s time, is that Canada has rejected its religious foundation-the God of the Bible. With that rejection, it has lost its understanding of the imago deo– humans made in the image of God. That understanding is that because humans are made
in the image of God, they have an innate human dignity and as such, all persons have lives worth living. With the loss of this understanding of who we are, Canadians have been left with a hollowed out notion that the greatest human value is one’s own choice or autonomy. And along with this value of one’s autonomy comes the notion that some persons have lives worth living and others- well, not so much. And so, this autonomy undergirds the right or choice to die, – to choose to end not only one’s own life, but that of our offspring.
As this notion of autonomy has played out societally, the Canadian courts legalized assisted suicide in 2016. As mentioned, to support this newfound right, Canada constructed a legal administrative framework euphemistically referred to as MAiD, Medical Assistance in Dying. As is typical, the rationale for MAiD began with the compassionate argument of ‘death with dignity’ and the view that assisted death is the compassionate solution to severe incurable suffering.
What kinds of suffering is death a compassionate solution to under MAiD? Initially, MAiD eligibility was limited to what is now called Track 1, those whose death was reasonably foreseeable– persons with terminal illnesses and irremediable medical conditions- causing great physical or physical suffering like terminal cancer.
But by 2021, a new category of eligibility, Track 2, was added for those whose death was not reasonably foreseeable. Under this expansion, persons with a disability or a non-terminal medical condition could seek MAiD services to end their lives. Included in this category could be the wheelchair bound or others with disabilities. And beginning in 2027, yet another category will be added to the ever expanding eligibility list. Now, persons suffering from depression or mental illness can become candidates for assisted suicide.
Lest you think I overstate the categories, here is how the Canadian Government explains the program and eligibility:
Medical assistance in dying (MAID) is a process that allows someone who is found eligible to be able to receive assistance from a medical practitioner in ending their life…
There are 2 methods of medical assistance in dying available in Canada.
Method 1: a physician or nurse practitioner directly administers a substance that causes death, such as an injection of a drug. This is sometimes called clinician-administered medical assistance in dying.
Method 2: a physician or nurse practitioner provides or prescribes a drug that the eligible person takes themselves, in order to bring about their own death. This is sometimes called self-administered medical assistance in dying.
Eligibility
To be eligible for medical assistance in dying, you must meet all the following criteria. You must:
- be eligible for health services funded by a province or territory, or the federal government
- You may also be eligible if you meet your province or territory’s minimum period of residence or waiting period.
- be at least 18 years old and mentally competent. This means being capable of making health care decisions for yourself.
- have a grievous and irremediable medical condition
- make a voluntary request for medical assistance in dying. The request cannot be the result of outside pressure or influence.
- give informed consent to receive medical assistance in dying
…
Grievous and irremediable medical condition
To be considered as having a grievous and irremediable medical condition, you must meet all of the following criteria. You must:
- have a serious illness, disease or disability
- be in an advanced state of decline that cannot be reversed
- experience unbearable physical or mental suffering from your illness, disease, disability or state of decline that cannot be relieved under conditions that you consider acceptable
You do not need to have a fatal or terminal condition to be eligible for medical assistance in dying.
If your only medical condition is a mental illness, you are not eligible for medical assistance in dying until March 17, 2027.
If you have a mental illness along with other medical conditions, you may be eligible for medical assistance in dying.
…
Medical assistance in dying: Overview Read More Here
So then, what did these policies of death with dignity look like in Canada as of 2023, only 7 years after legalization? Over 60,000 persons, that is 4.7% of all deaths in Canada, are by MAiD, beginning with less than 1000 in 2016 and over 15,000 in 2023. And for what kind of suffering? As reflected in the Canadian government’s Fifth Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada, 2023, Figure 3.6a, the reasons most cited for requested assisted suicide include loss of ability to engage in meaningful actives and inadequate pain control. But note, over 20% said the suffering causing them to seek to end their lives was due to the meaninglessness of a life of isolation and loneliness. And of those persons seeking assisted suicide who were not terminally ill, 50% cited loneliness as the reason.
I said this was a cautionary tale. But it is not one just for Canada, it is for us “right here in River City” as the famous lyric goes. Beginning with Oregon in 1997, and now in twelve states and the District of Columbia in the US there are laws for legalized assisted suicide. Illinois has enacted the End of Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act which is due to become effective September 16, 2026. There is similar legislation pending in nearly every state. And beyond this, the movement is global. Among the other nations that also have legalized medically assisted dying are included Belgium Spain, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Austria. In the United Kingdom, the House of Commons passed an assisted-dying bill that has since stalled in the House of Lords.”
One might be overwhelmed with these trends as well Isaiah could have been in delivering his message to the leaders of Judah. But as for Judah’s covenant with death, the Lord had more to say:
16 So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic.17 I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line; hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie, and water will overflow your hiding place.18 Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the realm of the dead will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it. Isaiah 28:16-18 NIV.
To find the cornerstone imagery here in the same passage with the “covenant with death” metaphor was startling. What, or shall I say, ‘who’ is this cornerstone? Jesus tells us he is the cornerstone. Matthew 21: 42 and Luke 20:17. And of this cornerstone Paul affirms that Jesus is the chief cornerstone of a holy temple in which we believers ( Jew and Gentile) are being built together into a dwelling place for God to dwell. Ephesians 2:19-22.
As God promised to annul Judah’s ‘covenant with death’ in the time of Isaiah, so too we have been called to join with the Lord in his plan for the redemption of the earth, culminating not in death, but in resurrection- life. As it is written:
Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 1 Cor. 15:14-16 NIV.
In the next article to follow we will look at some of those endeavors challenging the reining culture of death we live in.
By Richard Baker
