Death or Life: You must choose, Canada

How can you express the feelings of disappointment in Canada’s Supreme Court judges? In ruling in favour of assisted suicide they have in one fell swoop undone our legal commitment to protect the lives of our sick and suffering citizens. They have thrust us into a place that we should not be.

They have again, when faced with the option of protecting life or providing death, chosen death. 

It was the Supreme Court that opened up the legal vacuum we currently abide in when they stripped the unborn of all their human rights. It is the Supreme Court that has followed their own slippery logic to the place where the value of adult life is debatable.

One tweeter noted that this ruling, which opens the door to assisted-suicide for people with chronic depression and other mental illness, comes days after the #BellLetsTalk campaign sought to de-stigmatize mental illness.

Days after #BellLetsTalk, #SCC says those with irremediable suffering (not excluding mental illness) have right to #assistedsuicide.

— Kris Dmytrenko (@krisdmytrenko) February 6, 2015

I hate this. It makes me sick in my gut.

I feel that our courts have betrayed the purpose for which they exist. Did we really intend to create a court that rules when life is sacred and when it is not? What lives are of infinite worth and which are not?

Ugh!

Word fail. When words fail, we must express our outrage to our elected representatives in whatever words we can muster. We must also make our dissent known through our social media channels, as Cardinal Lacroix and a number of our bishops did on Friday. 

What a sad judgment! Let’s accompany those who suffer around us so that nobody chooses #suicide, assisted or not. Love is stronger!

— Mgr Gérald C Lacroix (@gclacroix) February 6, 2015

On the same day, I was moved by a story that highlighted the radical difference of philosophy between that of a "throwaway culture” and that of a culture of life.

A couple in Armenia had just given birth to a child who had Downs Syndrome. When the father went to see his son after the delivery he was informed that the mother had asked that he be taken away and given to an orphanage immediately. The father begged the mother to reconsider and she informed him that if he pushed it, she would divorce him.

He pushed it and decided he would raise the child himself if he had to.

Here is the part that moves me most. Someone started a GoFundMe campaign so that he could relocate and stay home with his newborn son for a period before he could figure work out. They set a fundraising goal of $60,000.

At last read, they were just under a half-million.

With much of the surplus he intends to donate to an orphanage that receives children with Downs Syndrome, which is amazing. My point is, the father in this story, and the hundreds or thousands of people that gave to support little Leo represent a culture of life. We have to choose to be a part of this culture, and it may mean swimming against the strong tide. 

Our current climate reminds me of the passage in Deuteronomy when the people of Israel are about to inhabit the Promised Land, and Moses warns them to be faithful to God. He reminds them that they have a choice, and that choosing the good will ensure their survival in the land.

"I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live…”  (Deut 30:19)

In our own land, which we pray that God will keep “glorious and free” in every singing of our anthem, our judges have made their choice. They have unanimously chosen death.

But we the people don’t have to accept their choice. We can choose to be loud about our dissent now, while the discussion is still happening. So be loud!

Choose life.

Please write a letter to your MP on this topic. You can look them up here.