(LifeSiteNews) – A Canadian pro-assisted suicide lobby group that has charity status wants Canada’s euthanasia laws expanded to allow minors to request the grim procedure.
The group, which calls itself Dying with Dignity Canada (DWDC), says Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) laws should be expanded and allow for “mature minors.”
The group claims that it is a “national human-rights charity” to “improve quality of dying, protect end of dying rights, and help people across Canada avoid unwanted suffering.”
DWDC says that MAiD in Canada should also apply to “mature minors” who, it claims, are suffering “grievous and irremediable medical condition.”
“It is unfair to allow a 70-year-old with terminal cancer the choice of a peaceful death but deny a 17-year-old who has been given the same prognosis and demonstrates a clear capacity to make the decision as an adult, the same choice,” the group claims.
As it stands now, MAiD for minors is not allowed; however, lobby groups have pushed for the current laws to be expanded.
DWDC, via its social media channels, continues to push its narrative that MAiD for minors is somehow compassionate.
A new Euthanasia Prevention Coalition report has revealed that Canada has euthanized 90,000 people since 2016, the year it was legalized.
As reported by LifeSiteNews recently, a Conservative MP’s private member’s bill that, if passed, would ban euthanasia for people with mental illness received the full support of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition.
Euthanasia first became legal in Canada in 2016 for those with terminal illness. Since then, the eligibility criteria have been loosened to allow the chronically ill, not just the terminally ill, to qualify for death.
Desiring to expand the procedure to even more Canadians, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government sought to expand from just the chronically and terminally ill to those suffering solely from mental illness. The current Liberal government of Prime Minister Mark Carney appears to want to continue with the MAiD regime.
However, in February, after pushback from pro-life, medical, and mental health groups, as well as most of Canada’s provinces, the federal government delayed the mental illness expansion until 2027.
