Retired Cpl. Christine Gauthier had been trying for 5 years to get Veterans Affairs Canada to install a wheelchair ramp at her house. The former Paralympian was speaking yet again with the VAC, describing the disability-related challenges she was facing. Eventually, an employee suggested that if life was becoming so difficult for her, perhaps she would prefer receiving physician-assisted suicide? They could even supply her with the MAID “equipment”.
Gauthier said of the encounter, “I was completely shocked and in despair.”
Another Canadian veteran reached out to Veterans Affairs, looking for mental health support. The caseworker instead repeatedly offered the man assisted suicide, despite the fact that the veteran had never asked for it. He reported that his VAC caseworker said to him, “Oh by the way, if you have suicidal thoughts, [MAID is] better than blowing your brains out against the wall.”
A much cleaner solution. Maybe that’s why they use the euphemism “MAID.”
Although the gentleman had been in a good place prior to the call, he was so shocked afterwards that he left the country. It’s a phenomenon known as “sanctuary trauma,” where a person is left immeasurably harmed by the very people he thought would help him.
Speaking of sanctuary, have you heard of the latest bold solution to the problem of homelessness? Apparently, nearly a third of Canadians from a variety of demographics support MAID for those who are homeless. The message is loud and clear: if you can’t afford a house, we can give you a body bag.
How quickly the so-called “right to die” becomes a duty to die. And how easy it is for a vulnerable person to believe the lie that she should erase herself if her needs take up “too much space” in the community.
The slope is indeed slippery, friends. And another word for a slope that’s approaching ninety degrees is cliff.
It would be easy to turn a blind eye to the medicalized executions happening in our midst. But I propose to you that instead, we be our brother’s keeper, and his lifeline. We cannot abandon him in his moments of crisis and confusion. We have to help him remember his reasons to stay when dark voices whisper the reasons he ought to go.
And the best way to honor those already lost is to make sure that no more victims are added to the body-count. As Lois McMaster Bujold has written, “The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is a duty of the living to do so for them.”
If you are struggling with suicidal ideation, please know that you are not alone. You can find crisis support resources here. You are irreplaceable, and deeply loved. You deserve to be here.
To take action against the expansion of euthanasia in Canada, visit Care Not Kill.
Maria McCann 