(LifeSiteNews) — On November 12, Albertan athlete, reality TV star, and disability rights advocate Brian McPherson died by euthanasia at age 47. Or as the CBC put it: “McPherson died by Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID), after battling several health complications.”
Once again, Canada’s state broadcaster made the conscious editorial decision to cast the decision of a man with disabilities to die by euthanasia in the most positive possible light — even quoting his mother emphasizing that death by lethal injection was the best choice for him.
“Over the last five years, he was, his body was shutting down,” Judy McPherson told the CBC. “He came to the house and he explained to his dad, annoyed that he was running out of steam. As his mom and dad, you could see things were getting worse and worse. But I have to be very honest, it was the most peaceful way for him to go to sleep (italics mine).”
Brian McPherson was an inspirational disability rights advocate in many ways — but the message sent here is the very narrative that disability rights groups in Canada have been fighting so valiantly — even desperately — against. In fact, the country’s top disability rights group, Inclusion Canada, successfully took the government to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities earlier this year, resulting in the UN body calling on Canada to repeal Track 2 MAID and halt further expansion of euthanasia.
“The UN is clear that our country must do better in upholding the rights and dignity of persons with disabilities,” Krista Carr, CEO of Inclusion Canada, stated earlier this year, “A top priority is Track 2 MAiD – a real and dangerous threat to the lives of people with intellectual disabilities. It must be repealed.” Inclusion Canada called on the government to implement all of the UN Committee’s recommendations, including halting the expansion of euthanasia to those suffering solely from mental illness.
It is obviously very significant that Canada’s top disability rights group took the government to the UN — an international body the government claims to highly respect — and that the UN then delivered such a severe rebuke to said government in response. Despite that, as far as I can tell, the CBC only covered that story a single time. In contrast, the CBC has published dozens of individual “MAID” stories with a distinctly positive slant that aligns perfectly with the agenda of euthanasia groups like Dying with Dignity.
The CBC obituary of McPherson emphasizes his contribution to promoting the interests of people with disabilities after he suffered a serious spinal injury at age 19: his role in the CBC show Push, which follows a group of friends “navigating their lives in wheelchairs;” his career as a “World Cup winning para-bobsledder and nationally ranked sledge hockey player;” his role as a “fierce advocate for the disabled community in Edmonton;” his excellence at sports like wheelchair basketball.
His life, in short, was an inspiration — especially to those with disabilities, for whom he was a powerful example and important voice. But his death is a tragedy and, after an all-too-short lifetime of advocacy, strikes a note of heartbreaking despair. It was, after all, a suicide, and no amount of medicalized language can cover that up. Some will recoil at my calling his death a tragedy. That only shows how much we have normalized assisted suicide, and how much we have gotten used to it.
The CBC chooses its quotes carefully in crafting obituaries, and they chose this description of Brian McPherson dying by lethal injection: “It was the most peaceful way for him to go to sleep.” What an awful message to send to those with disabilities, struggling to live on against the odds. What a horrific way to describe suicide. As George Orwell famously noted, “Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”
