Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? (1 Corinthians 15:55).
Standing at the precipice of another new year, I wonder how radically Canadian moral values will shift in 2023?
Specifically, I’m thinking about medical assistance in dying (MAiD) and how our nation’s response – political, legal, cultural – has rapidly evolved over the last 3 decades.
As 2022 ends, the evidence – empirical and anecdotal – indicates that Canadians are increasingly more ready to embrace the intentional termination of life as part of contemporary healthcare.
Rather than the greatest existential threat, death in our day is increasingly seen as an act of compassion.
Ironically, death is now seen as therapy to heal the wounds of life.
In prior generations, the control of pain provided few – and inadequate – options. However, many thought of suffering as being a feature in a Christian-based cultural worldview: pain somehow had redemptive value.
That is today generally scoffed at as hopelessly archaic thinking. Consequently, pain must be terminated by whatever means the sufferer chooses.
Even through death
And so, as we enter 2023, a survey of the cultural landscape reveals that the value of human life appears to be in rapid free-fall, most particularly as the ripples widen in the societal debate on how best to alleviate suffering.
The decidedly minority report continues to call for a return to more conservative values.
Physician and University of Toronto assistant professor Ewan Goligher: “A willingness to deliberately end someone’s existence therefore necessarily devalues the person. If people matter, we must not intentionally end them.”
But when a body dies, what follows for that soul?
In a letter to our respected Member of Parliament earlier this month, I wrote as follows: “As followers of Christ, we are also deeply concerned about the hereafter – the eternity into which MAiD ushers those who choose to terminate their lives. And so, we ask, what provision for spiritual preparation or counsel has been provided? It has been our experience that this dimension has been ignored when MAiD options are reviewed.”
Here are some historical markers in the advent of MAiD and one recent, hopeful development:
1994: the high-profile death of Sue Rodriguez.
Sue Rodriguez was a Canadian right-to-die activist who had been diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease).
She unsuccessfully appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) requesting that the Criminal Code be amended to no longer prohibit “the giving of assistance to commit suicide”. Rodriguez argued that the law at that time should “be declared invalid on the ground that it violates her rights…” asserting that the decision to continue life should be hers alone to make.
But, in denying her appeal – by a 5-4 decision – the high court made reference to “principles of fundamental justice” (Charter language), stating “this state policy is part of our fundamental conception of the sanctity of life.”
Nevertheless, Rodriguez unlawfully terminated her life with the assistance of an anonymous physician arranged by NDP MP Svend Robinson. Even though a violation of the Criminal Code of Canada, no charges were laid.
2011: influential report by the Royal Society of Canada (RSC).
The RSC is an association of distinguished Canadian scholars, humanists, scientists and artists, promoting learning and research, and recognizing academic accomplishment and artistic excellence. It has also assumed the role of advising governments and Canadians “on matters of public interest”.
It was in this vein, that the RSC weighed in releasing a report asserting that the previous traditional imbalance of opinion on medically-hastened death needed correction. To readjust and generate cultural acceptance, “the value of individual autonomy or self-determination…should be seen as paramount” in the national discussion on MAiD.
2015: the SCC strikes down the criminal prohibition against MAiD.
In so doing, the Supreme Court ruled that the criminal ban on euthanasia was a violation of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, most specifically each person’s right to life, liberty and security.
Not only was this landmark rendering recognized as a radically different decision than the SCC had reached in the Rodriguez case just over 2 decades earlier, but granting a person’s right to choose death seemed to many to be at odds with the Charter’s aforementioned affirmation of life, liberty and security.
2016: the Canadian government legalizes MAiD.
Following direction by the Supreme Court, the federal government passed legislation permitting MAiD but stipulating that physician-assisted death was restricted to those with “grievous and irremediable suffering” and where “death was reasonably foreseeable”.
That year, 1018 Canadians chose to have their lives terminated under these provisions.
2021: legal moves to reduce the threshold of qualification.
After challenges in the provincial Supreme Courts of BC and Quebec, the restriction regarding reasonably foreseeable death was removed nationally making it possible for otherwise healthy people with physical disabilities to qualify for MAiD.
And in 2021 alone, over 10,000 citizens of our nation made the decision to die at a time of their choosing as triggered by the actions of a doctor.
But here is what was particularly distressing about the 2021 legislation: it provides that in March 2023 the standard for qualification would be further lowered so that persons can choose MAiD simply on the basis of an underlying mental disorder.
In other words, as the new year dawns, Canada is acknowledged as having one of the most permissive euthanasia legal frameworks in the world.
Now for the faint glimmer of hope…
Unnoticed by many in the flurry of Christmas activity and year-end “best of” lists, a headline prompting a tiny cause for optimism: a decision by the federal government to delay the March 2023 amendment that would have permitted MAiD for those with mental illness issues alone.
Minister of Justice David Lametti announced, “We’re seeking to move that time period back”. He went on to indicate that “concerns” about the rapid expansion of MAiD have been heard.
Why did that change occur? Was it simply an example of political expediency?? After a slight pause, will the restrictive protections continue to be eroded thereby broadening the circle of those qualifying for MAiD?
Opinions and speculation abounds
But of interest to me was an event that occurred 2 weeks before the government’s welcomed delay announcement.
On December 1st, Ken Ferron and I represented Bethel in joining a national Zoom prayer meeting organized by the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada. On that occasion, interested pastors, leaders and other stakeholders from across the nation prayed, specifically asking the Lord to intervene by delaying or terminating the further erosion of restrictions and the consequent devaluing of life via MAiD in our country.
Takeaway: Christ-followers must continue to be biblical and vigilant on this front recognizing that every person is created in God’s image. Therefore, each has value that is derived, contingent, dependent – but of immeasurable worth!
Death of any person is within the sole purview of the Creator.
Dr. Goligher of U of T summarizes a biblical worldview on pain: “Suffering cannot rob us of our true meaning – to know and commune with the one who gave himself for us. Indeed, by God’s grace it serves to deepen that communion. To depart and be with Christ is far better, but with patience and faith we will wait for the master’s call.”
We take confidence in the eternal hope of the Gospel.
The Apostle Paul posed those questions - Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? to set up his conclusion:
But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:57).
…quotations by Dr. Ewan Goligher taken from CT Magazine, November 2022 issue.
~ graphic by seine, freeimages.com
