“Grandpa, can I be with you when you’re injected?” Image by rawpixel.com on Freepik.
Kurt Vonnegut’s Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of 25 short stories, many reflecting Vonnegut’s 1960s belief that the earth was becoming dangerously overpopulated. The eponymous short story anchoring the book imagines America as a place in which old people are encouraged to commit suicide, helped along by beautiful, virginal women. I couldn’t help thinking of that story when I read about the guidebook the Canadian Virtual Hospice has prepared for children aged 6-12. Ostensibly to help children understand a loved one’s death, the book seems to encourage euthanasia as a great “life” option.
Wesley J. Smith, at National Review, describes what’s happening in Canada:
Children are being indoctrinated into everything that subverts traditional values these days, and in Canada that includes bringing children along when a loved one is being euthanized — which goes by the euphemism MAID for medical assistance in dying.
Children are introduced into the medical killing fields by Canadian Virtual Hospice with its Medical Assistance in Dying Activity Book, described as being for children ages 6–12.
Using simple language, the book walks the child through the peaceful, painless process: First, the person is made to relax, then the person is knocked out, and then the person is painlessly executed.
The children are warned that, once someone commits to “MAID,” there’s no going back. That person has committed to dying and it’s tacky to stop them. Smith begs to differ:
That isn’t true, of course. Palliative care and appropriate emotional and psychological interventions can overcome suicide ideation in the seriously ill and disabled. But those asking for euthanasia are denied this essential hospice service. Moreover, only 15 percent of Canadians have adequate access to palliative care — a true scandal in a country that pushes euthanasia.
The book even has activities, so the child can plan his role in the other person’s euthanasia and, perhaps, already start thinking about his own euthanasia choices when the time comes.
Years ago, when I was still a Democrat listening to NPR, I remember a Dutch man boasting about the Netherlands’ newly created euthanasia program. He said that nothing like that should ever be tried in America. His reasoning was that, because America didn’t have socialized medicine, people would bully sick relatives to end it all to save money.
Even then, I knew that the Dutchman was dead wrong. People will do anything to save the one they love. To the state, however, we’re all widgets and line items in budgets—and so it is that, in Canada, it’s a lot cheaper to kill people than to give them the palliative care that will allow them to face down a terminal disease without suffering.
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