OTTAWA, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) — One of Canada’s most pro-life MPs, Leslyn Lewis, blasted euthanasia as a type of false “compassion,” echoing Pope Leo’s recent remarks about the deadly practice as well.
“Every human life has dignity, especially in moments of vulnerability. Compassion means caring for people, supporting recovery, relieving suffering, and ensuring that no one feels abandoned when they are at their most vulnerable,” wrote Lewis in an X post, with a link to a report about Pope Leo XIV’s recent condemnation of euthanasia while in France.
Lewis noted that when those who are suffering “see death as the answer to social conditions such as poverty, homelessness or isolation,” people need to ask whether we “have failed to provide the care and support they need to live with dignity.”
“As the Pope warns, we must not allow legalized death to become a substitute for compassion,” she added.
This past Sunday, while in Lourdes, France, as part of his four-day apostolic visit to the nation, which ended on Monday and saw over one million participants, Pope Leo spoke out against euthanasia.
“The human person is ‘worthy’ simply by virtue of existing and of being destined for eternity. Our dignity cannot be measured or debated,” said the pope.
“I know that for some of you, because of particular illnesses and, at times, terrible pain, your horizon may appear dark, uncertain and without hope. But no human law should ever make you lose the certainty of your dignity. On the contrary, it is precisely in the name of this inalienable dignity of the human person that we must reject the temptation to cause death under the guise of false compassion,” he said.
Leo also noted that it is “impossible to regard causing death as something normal. What is legal is not necessarily moral.”
Catholic teaching regarding life, which can never be changed, demands respect for human life from conception until natural death.
Lewis is one of the few Conservative MPs who are outspokenly pro-life.
The grim fact is, in Canada, euthanasia, or “Medical Assistance in Dying” (MAiD) as it’s known, has become so prevalent that recent statistics show the nation has recorded more deaths by euthanasia than murders by guns in the United States in 2024. The practice was made officially legal in 2016 by the Liberal government of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
So common is euthanasia in Canada, that as LifeSiteNews reported, a Canadian woman is demanding reforms after detailing how her suicidal mom was given euthanasia only hours after leaving care instead of being properly treated for a serious psychiatric medical issue.
Indeed, the expansion of euthanasia for the mentally ill is slated to become law in 2027 as a consequence of the passage of Bill C-7.
As reported by LifeSiteNews, Canada’s Catholic bishops have said they “support” Bill C-218, a law that, if passed, would stop the expansion of euthanasia to those with mental illness.