Is it right to attend a loved one’s death when that death is being administered by a doctor and considered an act of mercy? Should we stand quietly by as witnesses or supporters when a person’s final act is an act of defiance against God? As Christians, we have answers to the big questions, but I don’t think we have thought much about the smaller ones.

Canada has gained a lot of attention in recent years due to its commitment to Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), its preferred idiom for euthanasia. Some honor Canada as groundbreaking in its commitment to bringing dignity to death, while others abhor it as taking advantage of the weak, the elderly, and the vulnerable. Already euthanasia is responsible for more than 5% of deaths in Canada and the rates are rising fast.

Behind every death by euthanasia is a story, and the stories are tragic. Elderly people who live in care homes will have breakfast with a friend in the morning, then learn at lunchtime that they were euthanized shortly thereafter. Grown children are being asked to attend a celebration of life service for parents who are still alive but intend to die shortly thereafter. People who want to live but cannot get access to sufficient medical care are taking their own lives rather than continue suffering. People vulnerable to suggestion are being pressured to just end it all by those who should be caring for them. The guardrails are already lax and growing laxer all the time. As far as I know, no doctor has been charged, much less convicted, of any wrongdoing despite thousands and thousands of deaths.

One of the most interesting facts about euthanasia in Canada is that it is unevenly distributed across the population so that the majority of those who request it are white. Though Canada has millions of people whose origins are Indian, African, Chinese, and a host of other backgrounds, it is predominantly white Westerners who desire and pursue it.¹

Why is this? Because two of the foremost cultural values of Western society are autonomy and independence. Autonomy is the ability to self-rule and to make one’s own decisions, while independence is the state of being self-reliant and neither needing others nor being dependent upon them. Because aging and death are the ultimate means through which we prove we have no true autonomy and through which we lose our independence, euthanasia is a means of avoiding what is difficult, humiliating, or seemingly intolerable. In this way, euthanasia is a natural or perhaps inevitable result of Western culture.

It is a tragedy that the culture has primed people to accept something that ought to be unacceptable and to embrace something that ought to be unembraceable. It is a tragedy that many people would rather die than ask for help or end their lives rather than depend upon their children. It is equally tragic that many children would rather their parents die than have to care for them.

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