Canada Euthanized 10,000 People in 2021

The term “Nazi” is thrown around all too easily these days, and Leftists use it to smear people who believe in traditional marriage, only two genders, the sanctity of life, and other values that irk progressives. And to combat said Nazism, the Left sends armed thugs into the streets, censors information, and uses federal law enforcement to punish dissent. In Canada, the police were deployed in some cases to literally trample protestors, bank accounts were frozen and the effort to disarm citizens continues apace. And Canada is forging ahead when it comes to euthanasia, which will soon include the mentally ill.

Tom Leonard has filed a report for the Daily Mail in which he states that, last year, 10,000 people in Canada ended their lives via euthanasia. You have probably already heard the story of disabled veteran Christine Gauthier, who petitioned the government for a stairlift and was offered euthanasia as an alternative. But Leonard also highlights the story of Alan Nichols of British Columbia. He had depression and non-life-threatening medical conditions. Alan was hospitalized because it was feared he might attempt suicide. He asked his brother Gary to help him leave the facility. One month later, Alan submitted a euthanasia request. The reason? Hearing loss. Gary said that his brother was essentially put to death.

At age 71, Rod McNeill was hospitalized in Ontario after a fall. According to his daughter, Erin Smith, he was euthanized. The reason was allegedly end-stage chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. But Smith said an autopsy showed that her father did not suffer from that problem. Shelia Elson lives in Newfoundland. Her daughter has cerebral palsy. Elson was told that she was being selfish for not considering euthanasia as a treatment option for her daughter.

And it shows no signs of slowing down. Stephen Green has already reported about how Canada’s MAiD program has made assisted suicide an option for people who suffer from a variety of life’s problems from depression to poverty. Reuters said on Sunday that starting in March, the MAiD program will be extended to people whose only issue is mental illness. There is an application process, and two clinicians must decide if the condition is irremediable and intolerable. Candidates must be able to understand the scope and consequences of their decisions. But the stories reported by Leonard in his piece for the Daily Mail seem to indicate that is not happening. And if a person is mentally incapable of making a decision for themselves, what happens then?

Reuters quoted Toronto-based cancer psychiatrist Madeline Li who said, “Tired-of-life cases in Canada are happening. I’ve become very comfortable with MAiD for people who are dying. I am less comfortable for expanding indications. … We’ve made MAiD so open you can request it for basically any reason.” The big question is how long until MAiD goes from optional to popular to compulsory. The story of Sheila Elson’s daughter would seem to indicate that it may be much sooner than Canadians would like to think.

Humans have a predilection for atrocities, and it is not as if there isn’t a precedent for mandatory euthanasia. Here is an abstract from a paper entitled “The killing of psychiatric patients in Nazi Germany between 1939-1945” by Michael von Cranach:

Between 1939 and 1945, 180,000 psychiatric patients were killed in Nazi Germany. This paper opens with a brief discussion of the reasons for addressing this issue today; it is followed by the details of the so-called euthanasia program that entailed killing of patients by gas in special hospitals in the years 1939-1941, and in psychiatric hospitals in the years 1942-1945. In this latter period, patients were killed with lethal injections and through the introduction of a starvation diet. The fate of the Jewish patients and forced laborers, as well as the experiments conducted on the patients, are mentioned. Finally, some thoughts are presented to answer the question of why this could have happened. To me, the giving up of individual responsibility in an authoritarian system leads to the loss of the individual conscience and soul, including those of a psychiatrist. (Emphasis mine)

180,000 murdered in the space of six years.

In 2006, the American Journal of Psychiatry published a piece by Rael D. Strous, MD, called “Nazi Euthanasia of the Mentally Ill at Hadamar.” The article talked about Hitler’s “Operation-T4.” The objective of the operation was to exterminate “life unworthy of life.” As Strous explains:

It rapidly expanded to include individuals with mental illness, with Hitler’s 1939 decree allowing physicians to decide that certain individuals “be accorded a mercy-death.” These patients included those with schizophrenia, the criminally insane, and the chronically hospitalized. The euthanasia program became the Nazi regime’s first campaign of mass murder against specific populations whom it considered inferior and threatening to the well-being of the Aryan race and the first time in history where psychiatrists sought out to systematically exterminate their patients, with several prominent psychiatrists playing central roles.

I urge you to go and read the articles in the links above along with this piece from the Jewish Virtual Library which also includes a discussion about the Nazis’ forced sterilization of “abnormal people” to purge the Third Reich of genetic defects.

Canada, you are on the proverbial slippery slope, and the grade is quickly becoming too steep to overcome. America, I fear you are not far behind. I doubt that there will ever be a 21st-century equivalent of the Nuremberg trials. Activists, journalists, and even members of the government who are all too eager to accumulate money and power and curry favor with the powers that be will ensure that. And the people? Too many of them are unwilling or unable to stand up. They fear being called racists or transphobes. Or, ironically, Nazis.