Canada‘s assisted suicide laws have continued rapidly expanding in recent years, with a group of doctors now pushing for disabled newborn babies to be euthanized.
The demand for euthanasia is so high that doctors who provide it cannot keep up, according to a new report by The Atlantic.
Assisted dying, legalized in 2016, now accounts for about one out of 20 deaths in Canada, far surpassing countries where it’s been legal for longer.
As assisted deaths have become a major part of Canada’s health care system, the Quebec College of Physicians suggested legalizing euthanasia for infants born severely ill.
As The Atlantic noted, the practice is legal in the Netherlands – the first country to adopt it since Nazi Germany did it in 1939.
In 2022, Louis Roy from the Quebec College of Physicians raised the notion of euthanasia for babies up to a year old ‘who are born with severe deformations, very grave and severe medical syndromes, whose life expectancy and level of suffering are such that it would make sense to ensure that they do not suffer.’
While parents already have the option of stopping treatment for babies suffering from medical conditions, the proposal would accelerate the infant’s death, sparking questions about consent.
Hellbound and Down 