What the Left gets Right: the expansion of medically assisted suicide is dangerous and ominous.
Back in March, I wrote about the Canadian program MAID, which stands for medical assistance in dying. The fact that this program exists is concerning enough as it is but why it's been making news lately makes it even more worrisome. Before March 31st, only those with a medically verified terminal illness could qualify to apply for the doctor-abetted suicide program in Canada. Now, those who have a non-terminal illness, including mental illnesses, can apply. I agree with The Left that this is a red flag for the majorly slippery slope that this signifies.
The reasoning that the Left gives for its concerns is that this expansion is ableist and devalues the life of those who don't or can't function the way society prefers they do because it subtely sends the message that they can't have fulfilling lives. I would say it differently, but I agree: opening up access to a program that "allows" a deeply corrupt system to "help" you end your life is problematic for many reasons, not the least of which is that it signals a rapid devaluing of human life in the present era. I think we all can feel that things have shifted in the last three years; even with all the "keep each other safe" stuff, we are less patient with each other, more likely to dismiss and cancel others and even end major relationships for minor disagreements in the name of "being my true self," label others toxic for simply having different opinions, etc.
And this is where I part ways with the Leftist ideology. While it might not seem like it at first, the expansion of "access" to medically assisted suicide is actually an outcropping of the rampant self-worship that our current society practices. As I've written recently, part of the Leftist agenda seems to be to bend reality to serve the needs of those they deem victimized enough to be worthy of more of the resources (as if treating people unequally will result in some equal-outcome utopia). Advocating for bending reality is now looking like glorifying death when it's chosen as opposed to imposed on every one of us by reality. It's another attempt to seize control of the uncontrollable and refuse to accept that limitations and suffering are a part of life, that we don't have the ability to choice everything and that maybe we don't get everything we want at every moment (but we can still have a good life!).
Don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying that we should do nothing about suffering, or that there maybe aren't situations for choosing the time of one's death (as a believer, I think these decisions should only be made by/with God). I'm not saying that the medical system can't do anything for us. And I'm not saying that there are only problems with the Left and everything on the Right is perfect. Remember: I agree with those on the Left that I've heard speak out against Canada's expansion of it's MAID program. It is a dangerous precedent to set because where does it stop? And it is yet one more signal in this current culture that the general ethos devalues life. And none of us want to live in a world like that.
Finally, as I mentioned in my last note, you can now order my full-length poetry collection Bowed As If Laden With Snow on Amazon or on my website listed below! If you do so, I'd love if it you'd leave a review on Amazon after you read it. Thank you for all your support and engagement, friends!
