If we euthanize the elderly because they are in pain; if we euthanize the young because they suffer mental disorders; and if we destroy fetuses because they are unwanted, who will sing Oh Canada?
We call it murder when someone on drugs or in a fit of rage, shoots friends or strangers. Why do we want to ask our doctors and nurses, who have studied for years in order to bring healing, to ask or to demand that they induce death?
Soldiers, who train for war, suffer post-war distress. How will our doctors and nurses escape the same malday? Will we have to add all the above people to the euthanasia list? What if politicians develop a disorder due to workplace stresses and possible guilt regarding euthanasia? Please tell me, who will sing O Canada.
Those who are left may be afraid to report any injury or sickness to their doctors. Will the people who intend to enact this law, become fearful when they have a sickly child or a dear but aging parent to care for? Will they expect preferential treatment when euthanasia laws come knocking on the sick-room door?
If we silently destroy our own, one by one, and title it mercy, is it therefore different from what Syria has been doing, city by city, among its own citizens?
Death is not a friendly companion who sits beside us to comfort us and to bring us peace; no, death is our mortal enemy.
Isn’t there enough destruction of life in war-ravaged countries? Do we want to mimic the preoccupation with death that so many countries stagger under? Do we want to be swept into the vortex of self-destruction, too?
Carol D. Loewen