In Canada the West's Suicide is Becoming Literal

The suicide of the West is becoming reality. According to the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, Canada saw a sharp increase in government-assisted suicides last year, with an estimated 13,500 taking place in 2022.

This is a 35% increase from 2021, when 10,064 took their lives through the program. The number represented 3.3% of all deaths in Canada in 2021, which is deeply alarming.

“It has been reported that the province of Quebec saw a 51% surge in assisted suicides, with 3,663 such deaths being recorded in 2022 compared to 2,427 in 2021,” according to Life News. “7% of all deaths in Quebec in 2022 were therefore state-sanctioned assisted suicides.”

In 2020, 7,595 government-assisted suicides occurred in Canada. The latest numbers are clearly not just a one-year outlier, but part of a booming trend.

Canada created its program, Medical Assistance in Dying, in 2016. The program initially applied only to adults with terminal illnesses, but it has grown drastically in size and scope.

In 2021, Medical Assistance in Dying expanded to include people with chronic illnesses. The program has become a convenient tool to push the poor and sick to kill themselves.

For instance, in 2019, 61-year-old Canadian Alan Nichols submitted a request to euthanize himself. His family tried to intervene, but within a month he was killed. The illness listed on his application: “hearing loss.”

At the end of 2022, lawmakers expanded the program yet again to include people with mental illness. It was set to go into effect in March, but has been delayed until 2024.

Even with that delay, there are other plans to expand the program.

In Canada’s Parliament, a special committee on the topic released a report in February suggesting that Medical Assistance in Dying be extended to terminally ill minors.

It also must be said that there is something disturbing about the West—long known for its belief in the value of the individual and life itself—committing to ending life prematurely, en masse, in the name of autonomy. Hollywood, influencers, and celebrities glamorize assisted suicide like it is something wonderful to celebrate. The implications of this change in moral framework are conveniently glossed over.

In America, life expectancy is shortening and birth rates are falling. Young people are destroying themselves with drugs and—as assisted suicide becomes more common—the old, infirm, and the lonely take their lives prematurely.

The flip to mass assisted suicide is hardly the recipe for a vibrant, “progressive” civilization. What’s happening in Canada is a grave warning. Liberal programs—created in the name of compassion and autonomy—can become a systematized nightmare of collective civilizational suicide.

https://intellectualtakeout.org/2023/06/wests-suicide-is-becoming-literal/

[TBC: The increase in “assisted suicide” should be no surprise. As it has been pointed out, "Some public schools teach "death education." Some even have a "suicide talking day." On that day, students write suicide notes. They write their own obituaries and discuss what they will look like in their caskets. One student said that before "suicide talking day," she never considered the possibility of suicide. After that day, she began to contemplate it. She thought that it would "liberate her spirit" so that it would no longer be "enslaved to her body." In addition, it would help with the problem of global overpopulation. She said that the suicide training made her "brave enough" to commit suicide.

See: http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-smith012403.asp ].