Legal Euthanasia Encourages People to Give in to Despair

According to a recent survey, 27 percent of Canadians believe that medical assistance in dying (MAID)—the country’s official term for euthanasia—should be available to those whose sole complaint is poverty. The government is now poised to offer this form of “healthcare” to the mentally ill. Lionel Shriver, a longtime supporter of euthanasia, examines the results of Ottawa’s very lax regulations around legalized medical murder, and the horrific consequences. Take the case of forty-one-year-old Sean Tagert, who couldn’t afford the round-the-clock home care he needed, and didn’t want to move into an institution far from his son. He chose death, and the doctors were quick to accommodate him: