A recent video clip posted by the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) indicates the eligibility could expand for medically assisted suicide to include babies with disabilities. 

“Kids born with disabilities are now being considered for assisted suicide up to a year after their birth,” tweeted Lewis, who shared the clip.

“Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) was never meant for those who can’t give consent. Why aren’t the Liberals, Bloc and NDP condemning this unethical agenda?” she asked.

The clip highlights a Parliamentary Committee for the Canada Disability Benefit Act, or Bill C-22, that was held two weeks ago. 

One of the issues discussed was whether the recommendation to expand medical assistance in dying (MAiD) is appropriate for infants up to age one born with severe and grave syndromes.   

Also at stake in this bill is whether assisted suicide can be further expanded to include other vulnerable groups, including teens aged 14-17 who would be considered “mature minors” and those with intellectual disabilities. 

To this point, Inclusion Canada was “alarmed” by a Quebec doctor’s recommendation that Canada adopts such a measure, the National Post reports.

“Canada cannot begin killing babies when doctors predict there is no hope for them. Predictions are far too often based on discriminatory assumptions about life with a disability,” said Krista Carr, Inclusion Canada’s vice president.

“An infant cannot consent to their own death. This isn’t MAiD, it’s murder,” she added. 

With the proposed expansion for assisted suicide to include persons with mental disabilities, Carr also notes that “providing MAID to a person who cannot consent is a standard that is wildly dangerous for all persons with intellectual disabilities in Canada.” 

According to a Forbes report, Canada leads the world in assisted suicides, with 10,064 in 2021. Eighty-one percent of the requests were honoured in Canada. 

Increases are also attributable to the fact that assisted suicide is no longer restricted to people whose natural death is reasonably foreseeable. 

There’s been an alarming uptick in cases whereby assisted suicide has been pushed onto seniors, persons with disabilities, and veterans struggling with PTSD.  

Alongside current increases in assisted suicide and the government’s plans for expanding eligibility, the normalization of the act is becoming common.

For example, the Canadian Virtual Hospice recently devised and created a children’s book called Medical Assistance in Dying (Maid) Activity Book. 

The highly worded 30-page “activity book,” designed for six year olds and up, describes the death process under assisted suicide in a highly technical process. 

Recently, a bizarre clothing advertisement by Simons shows the beauty of life – or death – as it highlights one woman’s journey toward assisted suicide. 

“Last breaths are sacred. When I imagine my final days, I see bubbles. I see the ocean. I see music,” the speaker says, who received assisted suicide in October. 

“Even now, as I seek help to end my life, there’s still so much beauty. You just have to be brave enough to see it.”  

Dan Fournier is a freelance investigative journalist in Quebec, Canada. This is an abridged version of his original Substack article. You can read the full version here.