Canada Is Killing Itself

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O, Canada! What are you thinking... and doing?

In an absolutely devastating analysis from The Atlantic, the headline said it all: “Canada Is Killing Itself.” And yes, quite literally. In 2016, Canada’s Parliament gave its citizens the right to die, and now, doctors are struggling to keep up with the demand. Known as MAID (Medical Assistance in Dying), it set in motion what now accounts for one in 20 deaths in Canada. That is more than Alzheimer’s and diabetes combined. In Quebec, more than 7% of all deaths are by euthanasia, giving it the highest rate of any jurisdiction in the world. Canada now surpasses countries such as Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands, where assisted dying has been legal for much longer. 

In a classic case of a “slippery slope,” Elaina Plott Calabro writes:

MAID began as a practice limited to gravely ill patients who were already at the end of life. The law was then expanded to include people who were suffering from serious medical conditions but not facing imminent death. In two years, MAID will be made available to those suffering only from mental illness. Parliament has also recommended granting access to minors.

But then she quips, “It doesn’t feel quite right to say that Canada slid down a slippery slope, because keeping off the slope never seems to have been the priority.” Calabro adds that what is at the heart of the explosion is the concept of “patient autonomy.” It is normal for a physician to do what they can to honor a patient’s wishes, but in Canada it has become the engine of a runaway train. It has allowed Canada’s MAID advocates “to push for expansion in terms that brook no argument, refracted through the language of equality, access, and compassion.” Doctors, some of whom have euthanized hundreds of patients, call them “deliveries,” borrowing from maternity ward terminology.

Oh, and the Quebec College of Physicians has raised the possibility of legalizing euthanasia for infants born with “severe malformations,” a rare practice currently legal in the Netherlands—the first country to adopt it since Nazi Germany did so in 1939. MAID for mental illness is set to become legal in Canada in 2027. The Canadian Parliament’s Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying has formally recommended expanding MAID to include mature minors. It would require “parental consultation,” but not “parental consent.”

“This is the story of an ideology in motion,” writes Calabro, “of what happens when a nation enshrines a right before reckoning with the totality of its logic. If autonomy in death is sacrosanct, is there anyone who shouldn’t be helped to die?” As one family physician on Vancouver Island put it, “Once you accept that people ought to have autonomy – once you accept that life is not sacred and something that can only be taken by God, a being I don’t believe in – then, if you’re in that work, some of us have to go forward and say, ‘Well do it.’”

The Christian perspective on this is unequivocal. The sanctity of human life is rooted in creation itself. In Genesis, the Bible says: “So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27, NLT). To be made in the image of God means that when God made us, He put something of Himself in us. He gave us a spark of the eternal, a portion of the Divine. 

He gave us a soul.

And that soul is what allows us to do what only humans can do, which is to be in a relationship with the living God. This is decisive to who and what we are. Nothing else in all creation carries the standing, nor holds the position, of bearing the image of God—not plants, not animals, not reptiles, not insects, not fish, not birds. When it comes to humans, we alone were made in the image of God, with a soul, able to respond to and relate with the living God.

That’s why every single human being – every single one – has absolutely incalculable value. Why? They are image-bearers. It doesn’t matter what color their skin is, how much money they make, where they live in the world, or the state of their mental or physical capability. Every human being is of incalculable value and significance because they were made in the image of God. They bear the image of God. That’s what gives human life its sanctity.

It’s why we can say slavery is wrong.
Human trafficking is wrong.
Racism is wrong.
Abuse and bullying are wrong.

Anything that would demean the value and worth of a human being is wrong. 

But the ultimate affront against the sanctity of human life, against someone who bears the image of God, is the ending of their life through murder. Taking it upon ourselves to end a life is the ultimate act of defiance against God, for life is His and His alone to give and take.  

It doesn’t matter what the quality of life is for that person. 
It doesn’t matter what the cost of their life will be to society. 
It doesn’t matter how productive they are, how smart they are, how attractive they are. 
It doesn’t matter whether we like them or if they have angered us or offended us.   

All human beings have infinite worth because they are made in the image of God. And the taking of a life – any life – is showing contempt for God and His image. Life is sacred. It is not ours to do with as we please. 

Even if we kill ourselves.

Only God can end it or direct its ending. 

Make no mistake. Active euthanasia is assisted suicide. This isn’t about whether to use extraordinary means to extend the process of dying when there is no hope for extending life, what is often called passive euthanasia. Very few Christian ethicists would challenge that choice. 

(They would, however, say that food and water are not extraordinary efforts. Those are basic needs for anyone living.)

What we are talking about is the direct killing of a patient because a disease may be terminal, or the withholding of assistance that would prolong life in a substantive way simply to avoid pain or difficulty. It is every bit as much the taking of a human life as any other form because it’s not our life to take nor our decision to make. It’s not a matter of personal rights, as we have no rights over the life that has been given to us.

Compassion can be poured out on people who are suffering, and we can and should stand with them, pray for them, and encourage them to take advantage of everything that is available in terms of pain management and hospice care, but the taking of a life for the sake of the quality of life is against the sanctity of life. Because yes, Canada,

... there is a God.

James Emery White

Sources

Elaina Plott Calabro, “Canada Is Killing Itself, The Atlantic, August 11, 2025, read online.

Mark Silk, “Why has Canada embraced euthanasia?” Religion News Service, August 15, 2025, read online.