Lawmakers in Great Britain on Friday voted in favor of assisted dying for citizens in England and Wales who meet certain strict criteria.
The proposal passed the House of Commons 330-275 after five hours of emotional debate.
Former British prime ministers Boris Johnson, Theresa May and Liz Truss all opposed the legislation, The Daily Mail reported.
To qualify for assistance, applicants must be over the age of 18, diagnosed with a terminal illness, and have been given no more than six months to live.
Two doctors and a judge would be required to give their approval, and the fatal drugs would have to be self-administered, The New York Times reported.
Such hurdles and limits have been set before by legislators, only to be stripped away later. Such is the case in Canada and its Medical Assistance In Dying program, or MAID, that was legalized eight years ago to ease the pain and suffering of the terminally ill.
Like some horror movie, Canada's suicide program has since expanded to try to kill a disabled war veteran, Christine Gauthier. The well-known Paralympian, who was living a happy life, went public after she repeatedly asked the Dept. of Veterans Affairs for a wheelchair ramp only to be repeatedly encouraged to kill herself instead.
Canada's MAID expanded in 2021 to include Canadians with chronic pain and will now expand in 2027 to help kill people who suffer from mental illness.
“It's very sad," Father Calvin Robinson, a parish priest and conservative media figure, said on American Family Radio Monday.
"But it shows that we've lost our core moral compass in the United Kingdom," Robinson continued, "because unless you are centered on something, and I would say that something should be Jesus Christ, but unless you're centered on something, you'll believe anything."
A move that many see filled with compassion is way off the mark, Robinson told show host Jenna Ellis.
“They’re sending the message out there that to be compassionate we have to end people's suffering, and by ending people's suffering, what they mean is ending their lives,” Robinson said.
Suffering in life is unavoidable, Robinson said. The better approach is to be available to help people during their suffering, not end life and move on.
“Surely the compassionate thing to do is to be with people in their suffering, because suffering isn't something we can avoid," he said. "We all go through suffering as horrible as it is at the time, but the true sense of love is to be with that person in their suffering. Actually, quite often, we're able to come out of that suffering, whether it's physical suffering or mental suffering."
Not as rare in the U.S. as you might think
Assisted dying is already legal in a handful of European countries, as well as in New Zealand, 10 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
U.S. states providing the service include: California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont and Washington.
It’s also available in Washington, D.C.
Frank Pavone, a former Catholic priest and founder of Priests for Life, like Robinson, is a noted pro-life advocate.
If assisted suicide becomes law in the U.K., Pavone told Ellis it will expand just like it has in Canada.
In Ontario, Canada, euthanasia regulators have tracked 428 cases of possible criminal violations but have not referred a single case to law enforcement, The New Atlantis reported.
“If the argument behind this is choice, then why are there any limits at all, and how can you justify maintaining those limits? Guaranteed, guaranteed just like what happened with abortion. You put this in there in the law with certain limits, and just let enough time go by, and those limits will go away,” Pavone said.
Lawmakers will give in to the argument of “choice,” Pavone also warned.
“If in fact this is my autonomous choice to escape my suffering, and to end my life, well then tell me why one person's suffering is considered worse than someone else's. Suffering is very subjective,” he said.
For lawmakers to decide otherwise will not be equal protection under the law, Pavone said.
“And that’s not fair," he said. "Guaranteed that will be the argument, and that argument will prevail.”
Birth rates, meanwhile, are declining in the U.K., falling by 3.1% in 2022 in England and Wales compared to the previous year. It was the lowest birth rate in 20 years.
As the same time, abortion is on the rise.
The most recent numbers from the government show 214,256 abortions performed in 2021, compared to fewer than 190,000 in 2016 when the steady ascent began.
Robinson therefore sadly sees a “death of the culture” in the United Kingdom.
Living, dying at the bottom line
If the state sanctions assisted suicide, decisions will be made with emphasis on the bottom line, he said. The books have to balance, he warned, and a cost/benefit analysis will be performed.
"The question has to be asked, is it cheaper to kill this person or keep them on medication? Is it cheaper to give them surgery or end their life?” Robinson said.
These questions aren’t asked out loud but will certainly be asked in conversations about the care of vulnerable individuals, the priest warned.
That was the case in Canada, in Gauthier's repeated request for a wheelchair ramp that stretched on for five years. After she came forward, five other cases of coercion surfaced only for Veterans Affairs to claim its employees had violated department rules.
At the same time U.K. residents are having fewer children, Robinson said, many future British citizens are being killed in the womb.
“Now we’re looking at killing people who are adults, too," he said. "There’s almost like a de-population agenda going on. We need the opposite. We need to incentivize the family. We need to incentivize having children, large families and looking after our families."
