For years, those of us who have adamantly opposed government run healthcare, have been told that we should look at Canada and Great Britain for examples of well-run systems that provide efficient and affordable healthcare for all citizens. Their systems should be the model for the American healthcare system. Those of us who feared government run healthcare believed that it would inevitably lead to rationing of care and death panels where a board of bureaucrats decide who gets care and who doesn’t. The anti-state-run healthcare contingent have been accused of wanting people to die in the streets because they could not afford the healthcare they needed. Government run anything, whether it is healthcare, or retirement system, or schools, always leads to rationing, inefficiency, corruption and waste of whatever they are running.
So, it came as no surprise to me when it was reported in September of 2022, that a 22-year-old Canadian woman, Amelie Champagne, decided to commit suicide, under the Canadian program MAID – Medical Assistance in Dying which became law in 2016. Ms. Champagne believed that life was no longer worth living because she was dealing with the pain and discomfort of the lasting symptoms of Lyme disease, a disease which is completely treatable with anti-biotics. Even if she developed Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome, the CDC claims that “Patients with PTLDS usually get better over time, but it can take many months to feel completely well.” It seems very strange that a 22-year-old woman would be unwilling to deal with a few months or possibly a half of year of pain in order to live the remaining 50-60 years of life.
Last year, more than 10,000 people were euthanized in Canada through the MAID program, which is a 1000% increase since the program was instituted in 2016. We’re not talking about a 90-year-old with advanced Alzheimer’s who put on his living will a “do not resuscitate” order. Many of the people who are deciding to commit suicide under the MAID program, have 30-40 more years of life left in them, but the expense to the government to keep these people living 30-40 more years is just too costly. A 54-year-old Canadian man, Amir Farsoud, applied for MAID because he recently found himself homeless, and dealing with some medical issues such as persistent back pain. But he admitted, “I don't want to die but I don't want to be homeless more than I don't want to die. It [dying] is not my first choice.” He is choosing to die because he believes he has no other choice. The government run healthcare and socialized political system in Canada is failing him, so he is choosing death.
In October of 2022, 37-year-old woman, Jennyfer Hatch, decided to commit suicide through the MAID program. In an interview in June, Jennyfer told CTV: “I feel like I'm falling through the cracks so if I'm not able to access health care am I then able to access death care? And that's what led me to look into medical assistance in dying (MAID).” She added: “Our health-care system is set up so it's really bouncing the patient around treating symptom after symptom and not really addressing the underlying collagen issue… I can't afford the resources that would help improve my quality of life. Because of being locked in financially as well and geographically.” She concluded by saying, it is “far easier to let go than keep fighting”. It is clear that this 37-year-old woman does not want to die, but she is almost being steered to this assisted dying decision through the system that is run by the state.
Prior to her death, Jennyfer Hatch filmed a pro-assisted suicide commercial which aired throughout Canada. In the commercial, she said, “Last breaths are sacred. When I imagine my final days, I see bubbles. I see the ocean. I see music. Even now as I seek help to end my life, there is still so much beauty, you just have to be brave enough to see it.” What we all should see as a tragedy, a 37-year-old woman choosing to go to her death because she cannot get the proper medical care she needs, the state has tried to turn into something heroic. Why? Because it is much more cost effective for the state for citizens to kill themselves then get the care they need. And one of the victims of this failing healthcare system in Canada willingly took part in a propaganda commercial which may entice many other young people in her situation to choose death over life. Who needs death panels when you can convince young people that suicide is “beautiful” and “brave”?
We have all seen the influence that state has over many people in every country – taking everything the government tells them as the absolute irrefutable truth. Hundreds of millions of people in this country lined up like sheep to take a vaccine that didn’t really work, wasn’t properly tested, and potentially could harm them, because the government told them to. The government shamed them into taking the shot by telling them that they weren’t doing it to save their own life, they were doing it to save their neighbors lives. How many of these Canadian citizens who are getting medically assistance in dying are doing so because they believe that is what is best for themselves, or have they been bullied into believing it is what’s best for their neighbor, and for their country? Remember, the Canadian government has told them that killing yourself is “brave” and “beautiful”.
There is a similar push for medial assisted suicide in the United Kingdom which has its own government run healthcare system. A study concluded that assisted suicide could result in £84 million in reduced costs per year for UK government run healthcare system. In 2021, Molly Meacher, a member of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom, introduced the Assisted Dying Bill which “would create a legal framework to allow a terminally ill patient to end their life.”In October od 2022, Liberal Democrat Member of Scottish Parliament, Liam McArthur introduced legislation that would make assisted suicide legal in Scotland. So far, none of the legislation has passed in the UK, by it is being pushed persistently.
This is where you end up when you embrace a political system that moves society away from God, and the state replaces God. People claim that you do not need God to be moral, which is true. But a morality that is not grounded in an authority that transcends the self will eventually devolve into a form of practical morality, a pragmatism where there is no inherent value to anything, only what is practical. So, if the pragmatic thing for the whole of society is to encourage young people who are dealing with a medical issue to kill themselves to save resources to prop up the government run system which is touted as the savoir of society, then medical assisted suicide becomes the most moral thing to do because it is the most pragmatic thing to do. The value is derived from making the most pragmatic decision. There is no longer an inherent value to human life. And history has tragically shown far too often what happens when the state and its citizens no longer see human life as inherently valuable.
Judd Garrett is a graduate from Princeton University, and a former NFL player, coach, and executive. He has been a contributor to the website Real Clear Politics. He has recently published his first novel, No Wind.