Blogs
Featured Image
 Shutterstock.com

January 8, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Even for Canada’s media, which was universally and enthusiastically in favor of the legalization of assisted suicide in the leadup to legalization, the Ottawa Citizen’s recent spin on a tragic and awful trend is jaw-dropping. Increasingly, those opting for assisted suicide are also volunteering to have their organs recycled (18 organ and 95 tissue donors in 2919), and the Citizen’s headline noted this fact approvingly: “Medically assisted deaths prove a growing boon to organ donation in Ontario.”

The Citizen lauded this “relatively new source of organs and tissues,” which they noted is significant in that “Ontario’s waiting list for organs typically hovers around 1,600.” That “source of organs and tissues,” it should be noted, is patients who have been killed by medical professionals at their request, after which their corpses can be pillaged for spare parts. This, apparently, is a “boon.” From the Citizen:

According to Trillium Gift of Life Network, which oversees organ and tissue donation in Ontario, the 113 MAiD-related donations in 2019 accounted for five per cent of overall donations in Ontario, a share that has also been increasing. In 2018, MAiD-related donations made up 3.6 per cent of the province’s total donations, and in 2017 just 2.1 per cent.

Since assisted suicide (referred to in the media by the handy euphemism “MAiD” in order to make the process sound less alarming and less like suicide) became legal in Canada in 2016, the Trillium Gift of Life Network “immediately moved to the forefront of organ and tissue donation through MAiD” as a result of “proactively” reaching out to those seeking assisted suicide to see if they might be willing to donate their organs after they’d been killed. The only downside, the Citizen noted, is that the preference of assisted suicide recipients for “home deaths” prevents many donations from taking place as organ donation is only legal when the donor dies in a hospital.

One particularly disturbing scenario cited by Dr. Moira McQueen of the Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute involves a compromise solution to prospective donors who still wish to die at home. In some instances, patients could begin the process of dying at home—in short, getting the first injections, which would sedate them. At that point, having lost consciousness at home as they wished, the donor could then be shuttled to the hospital where the final lethal injection would kill him and his organs would be harvested.

Further to all of that, the Citizen noted enthusiastically, we may see these donations increase:

MAiD donations also typically provide more time for testing donor organs and better matching with recipients. MAiD, and its subsequent related organ donation, recently received a potential boost in the courts, when Quebec’s Superior Court ruled last September that parts of the laws governing assisted death were unconstitutional.

The decision followed a lawsuit by Montrealers Jean Truchon and Nicole Gladu, who have incurable degenerative illnesses and were refused MAiD. In particular, they challenged the Criminal Code restriction that natural death be “reasonable foreseeable” before being eligible for assisted death and the portion of Quebec’s Bill 52 that said people must “be at the end of life.” The court decision gave both governments, neither of which appealed the decision, six months to amend their laws.

To summarize that: Expanding the eligibility criteria for assisted suicide is a positive thing because more dead people means more available organs. Further to that, allowing people who are not dying in the short-term to have themselves killed means that the likelihood of getting organs in better condition (i.e. not damaged by disease) grows significantly. This is also apparently a good thing. At no point, it must be noted, does the Ottawa Citizens’ glowing coverage quote anyone with any ethical concerns about approaching suicidal people with requests for their organs. 

Apparently, we’ve moved past all that.

Jonathon’s new podcast, The Van Maren Show, is dedicated to telling the stories of the pro-life and pro-family movement. In his latest episode, he interviews Gianna Jessen, a well known abortion survivor and pro-life advocate. Ms. Jessen has been mentioned in speeches by President George W. Bush. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of Westminster have said that her story could impact the abortion debate. She says: “I am alive. Just by the miraculous power of Christ.”

You can subscribe here and listen to the episode below:

Featured Image

Jonathon’s writings have been translated into more than six languages and in addition to LifeSiteNews, has been published in the National Post, National Review, First Things, The Federalist, The American Conservative, The Stream, the Jewish Independent, the Hamilton Spectator, Reformed Perspective Magazine, and LifeNews, among others. He is a contributing editor to The European Conservative.

His insights have been featured on CTV, Global News, and the CBC, as well as over twenty radio stations. He regularly speaks on a variety of social issues at universities, high schools, churches, and other functions in Canada, the United States, and Europe.

He is the author of The Culture War, Seeing is Believing: Why Our Culture Must Face the Victims of Abortion, Patriots: The Untold Story of Ireland’s Pro-Life Movement, Prairie Lion: The Life and Times of Ted Byfield, and co-author of A Guide to Discussing Assisted Suicide with Blaise Alleyne.

Jonathon serves as the communications director for the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform.