Joanne of Arc's blog

By Joanne of Arc (Quebec Life Coalition) - Photo: Rawpixel.com/Adobe Stock

Catherine Levesque published an article on October 11, 2022 in the National Post. She reports that the Quebec College of Physicians is being criticized by advocacy groups for proposing that euthanasia for critically ill newborns be made legal.

So far, Canada has refused to extend assisted dying to children under the age of 18, although consideration has been given to making it available to "mature minors". Then, in a recent presentation made by Dr. Louis Roy for the Quebec College of Physicians to the House of Commons Special Joint Committee on Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), the federal government of Canada was urged to adopt a protocol to allow euthanasia of seriously ill infants.

Levesque states: Dr. Roy's organization believes that MAID may be appropriate for infants up to one year of age, who are born with "severe malformations" and "severe and life-threatening syndromes" for which their "prospective of survival is virtually null".

In the same article, Krista Carr, Executive Vice-President of Inclusion Canada, expressed being alarmed at Roy's recommendation that Canada legalize euthanasia for children with disabilities under the age of one.

Mrs. Carr added: "Canada cannot begin killing babies when doctors predict there is no hope for them. Predictions are far too often based on discriminatory assumptions about living with a disability. "

She also said: "An infant cannot consent to their own death. That isn't MAID, it's murder. And providing MAID to a person who cannot consent is a standard that is wildly dangerous for all persons with intellectual disabilities in Canada."

Alex Schadenberg, Executive Director of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, writes on his blog: "Dr. Roy suggested that this should only be allowed in rare circumstances, such as a newborn who is unlikely to survive but infant euthanasia opens the door to a new justification for killing since the baby lacks competence and the ability to autonomously choose to be killed. Infant euthanasia is a form of eugenics whereby protocols will determine which lives are worth living."

Dr. Louis Roy, representing the Quebec College of Physicians - Photo: Twitter

Schadenberg has more to say on the subject: "Euthanasia was sold to Canadians under the guise of competent adults freely choosing to have their lives ended based on terminal illness or unremittent suffering. Bill C-7, that was passed in March 2021, among other things, extended the reason for killing from terminal illness to chronic illness or disability."

"If infant euthanasia is approved it may lead to the approval of euthanasia for people with dementia who never requested or indicated an interest in euthanasia since infant euthanasia creates the precedent that someone else, such as a power of attorney, can request that a person be killed.”

Alex Schadenberg also spoke to the National Post, "Why would you then have to give the child a lethal dose? If the child is not going to survive, the child can be kept comfortable and die naturally. There’s no reason for us to kill the child. There’s no reason for us to do this at all. "

Catherine Levesque explains in her article that the College cited the Netherlands’ Groningen Protocol - a detailed process that includes unbearable suffering confirmed by at least one doctor and informed consent from both parents - as an avenue to explore in Canada for euthanasia of severely ill newborns. The College also recommended making MAID accessible to minors from 14 to 17 years old, with the authorization of parents or of a tutor, adding that suffering has no age and that it can be as intolerable as for adults.

Tanner Hnidey publishes a video criticizing the euthanasia of children - Photo: Youtube

People are also starting to react on social networks. Tanner Hnidey is a Lay-Theologian, Christian Teacher and Industrial Organization Economist. He is the author of "True Christianity". He posted a video on YouTube titled "They're Killing BABIES!" in which he expresses his frustration. "The killing of babies is not assisted suicide, because the very term 'suicide' implies a choice and a baby has no choice.”

He adds, "These children will be subjected to the most inhumane, cruel, wicked, degrading, denial to the right to earthly life by men and women who have taken an oath to uphold life. Those babies’ blood and deformities will be declared a defiling and a curse when they are tossed out into the trash [...] There are no words to describe the horror I feel at such grotesque 'health care'."

Like the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, Quebec Life Campaign opposes all forms of euthanasia and assisted suicide. Alex Schadenberg draws an important conclusion on his blog, "expanding killing to babies negates the 'safeguard' that only people who can capably request to die can be approved for death." The limits of euthanasia are constantly being pushed back in Quebec and it seems that death is becoming more and more the solution for any illness, any deformity and any handicap. The profession of the physician, whose duty it is to protect life, is being transformed into that of an assassin and the health care system is becoming one huge morgue. What a terror to observe all this...