Canada lawmakers criticized for looking at offering euthanasia to CHILDREN trends now
Relaxing euthanasia laws in Canada so children can be offered assisted dying would tell sick young people their lives are ‘not worth living’, a campaigner has warned.
Lawmakers in Canada are currently considering whether medical assistance in dying (MAID) should be open to 'mature minors' who meet certain criteria.
Mike Schouten, an activist whose son Markus died of cancer earlier this year, said the highly-controversial policy would send the message to patients like his son that caregivers are ‘giving up’ on them.
Mr Schouten, director of advocacy for the Association for Reformed Political Action (ARPA) in Canada, warned the criteria for assisted dying has been widened ‘incredibly quickly’ since it became legal in 2016.
His intervention comes amid a fierce debate in Canada about its increasingly relaxed approach to assisted death. More than 10,000 Canadians were euthanized in 2021 alone, up tenfold in five years.
Mike Schouten, pictured left, with his late son, Markus, and wife Jennifer. Under changes that could be made to euthanasia law in Canada, Markus would have been eligible for MAID after his cancer diagnosis. His father said offering children euthanasia sends a message that their life isn't worth living and caregivers have 'given up' on them
In a series of shocking cases around MAID in Canada:
From March 2023, patients with mental health issues but no qualifying physical ailment will be able to request MAID if doctors consider their condition ‘intolerable’.
A parliamentary committee is also looking at whether children deemed to be ‘mature minors’ should be offered assisted dying.
Mr Schouten told DailyMail.com: ‘It’s only been six years and we’re at the point where people with mental illness will be able to avail themselves of it, people with disabilities are already allowed to avail themselves of it.
‘Now we’re discussing whether or not children, minors, are going to be able to avail themselves of it. We have slid down this slippery slope incredibly quickly.’
He added: ‘People are requesting MAID because they can’t afford rent, or they can’t afford basic medications for knee pain, or joint pain, things like that.
‘Instead, they’re [thinking], it’s easier to die than get the proper medication or help that I want, so I’m going to request MAID - and those requests are being granted.
‘And that’s, I think, the part that is really causing a lot of alarm.’
Mr Schouten made an impassioned plea to Canada’s parliament on November 25 urging them not to make children eligible for MAID.
MAID became legal in Canada in 2016. Since then, the rules around who is eligible have been relaxed several times - and rates have increased tenfold to around 10,000 cases in 2021
A parliamentary committee in Canada is considering whether MAID should be offered to children. Mr Schouten and his wife, Jennifer, gave a powerful testimony arguing against such a move by drawing on their own experience of their son Markus's fight with terminal cancer
His son, Markus, was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma in February 2021 and died just 15 months later, on May 29 2022, aged 18.
Markus was an ambitious young man who was working towards his dream of launching his own landscape business. In November 2020, he joined a gym with his friends but picked up a shoulder injury after a few sessions.
The pain didn’t go away and an X-Ray revealed damage that ultimately led to his cancer diagnosis.
He underwent 20 rounds of chemotherapy and 25 rounds of radiation therapy, along with several surgeries, before it was decided to end treatment for a cure and focus instead on quality of life care.
Under changes that could be made to euthanasia law in Canada, Markus would have been eligible for MAID.
Markus Schouten was diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma in February 2021 and died just 15 months later, on May 29 2022, aged 18. His father said the offer of MAID would have told his son that caregivers had 'given
