Earlier this year, Rep. Adrielle Camuel (D-Lexington) introduced House Bill 408, which would have legalized physician-assisted suicide in the Commonwealth. While supporters saw the bill as championing personal choice and human dignity, a recent case in Canada, where assisted suicide has been legal since 2016, shows the unforeseen consequences of such legislation.
Canadian law requires that a person have a “grievous or irremediable condition” in order to qualify for medical assistance in dying (MAID). However, a recent tragedy raises questions about the integrity of this vetting process—and points to an even deeper question concerning the right to end one’s own life in Canada and beyond.
The National Post of Canada reported last month that Dr. James MacLean approved a patient with inflammatory bowel disease and a history of mental health issues for MAID. The disease hardly qualifies as grievous or irremediable, yet the doctor still gave the patient the go-ahead to end their life.
What’s even more shocking is that this examination did not occur within the confines of a medical facility, but outside of a Tim Hortons donut shop. The same doctor later personally drove the patient to the place where they ended their life, which “raised concerns about professional boundaries.”
MacLean has agreed to six months’ supervision by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario for this “lack of judgment.” However, this is not the first time that MacLean has faced controversy concerning his role in ending patients’ lives.
Previously, MacLean did not administer all the necessary drugs to induce death in a patient. Thus, the patient “resumed spontaneously breathing again after initially being pronounced dead, and after MacLean had already left the home.”
Six months of supervision is hardly more than a slap on the wrist for such serious lapses in professional judgment.
But though MacLean is drawing controversy even among supporters of MAID, the case raises deeper questions about whether the practice is humane in the first place.
In Canada the MAID program began in 2016 by restricting euthanasia only to those who were terminally ill. However, by 2021 access had been expanded to those with a “serious or incurable illness, disease or disability.”
This expansion of access to MAID has produced an onslaught of cases, with nearly one out of every 20 deaths in Canada being the result of assisted suicide. In theory, each of these deaths was approved due to the aforementioned medical reasons, but in many cases, it seems to be primarily brought on by material circumstances.
For example, PBS reports that “One doctor wrote that although his patient had a serious lung disease, his suffering was ‘mostly because he is homeless, in debt and cannot tolerate the idea of (long-term care) of any kind.’”
In such cases, medical and mental health resources are available. However, the government has instead authorized such individuals to take their own lives through MAID.
This problem persists not only among the homeless in Canada, but among people of all classes who struggle with mental health in combination with physical illness.
Though leading organizations argue MAID provides individuals the opportunity to experience “death with dignity,” these cases illustrate how MAID preys on individuals in cases of desperation.
Dignity is not just a matter of one’s own preferences and personal interests, but rather is the inherent value of a person by virtue of their humanity. This is true regardless of race, gender, sexuality, and even terminal diagnosis.
At every stage in a person’s life—from fertilization to natural death—they possess dignity, not because of their relative health or position in society, but simply because they are a human being.
MAID fundamentally alters that moral equation. It takes dignity and turns it into something that must be grasped at through choice and self-determination. In doing so, the reasoning behind MAID raises serious questions about the dignity of those who are not capable of making their own choices (whether they are unborn, mentally disabled, or incapacitated by age).
Human dignity must be grounded in something deeper and more enduring than personal choice and circumstance. Individuals possess dignity simply by merit of their humanity.
Though advocates of MAID appeal to empathy to justify the practice, good policy must be based on the reality of human dignity—the fact that all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.
The very foundation of American liberty is that human beings are endowed by God with intrinsic worth and dignity. By resisting physician-assisted suicide, Kentuckians are upholding what it truly means to be human.