An Archbishop & Medical Assistance in Dying

1 God sees the little sparrow fall,

it meets his tender view;
if God so loves the little birds,
I know he loves me too.

Refrain:
He loves me too, he loves me too,
I know he loves me too;
because he loves the little things,
I know he loves me too.

A few days ago George Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, (head honcho of the Church of England) urged bishops in the British House of Lords to support a private members bill to legalize assisted dying. In what is a signficant shift in outlook from an earlier day Carey said that what we term Medical Assistance in Dying is“necessary, compassionate and principled. The sad history of scientific exploration… is that church leaders have often shamefully resisted change. Let’s not follow that trend.” 

While Carey claimed that the majority of Anglicans support legalizing assisted dying lots of Christians do oppose it, as do denominations such of the Roman Catholic Church. I read a Guardian article in response to Carey in which the author was concerned that a reductionist, right or wrong, yes or no, approach is not helpful and I would agree.  

Assisted dying, or MAID, has been legal in Canada since 2016 and before the legislation was passed I invited MP and United Church minister, Rob Oliphant, to speak to a packed house gathering here in Belleville. Rob was a co-chair of the parliamentary committee which made recommendations regarding MAID  to the House of Commons. Some of those were put aside, considered too controversial, but assisted dying was legalized in June of that year. At the meeting of mostly older folk a number expressed their desire to have the MAID perameters broadened to include those with dementia. They didn't want to become a burden to their families. 

While I support the legalization of MAID, a shift from my own perspective of a few decades ago, I continue to have strong concerns about protecting the vulnerable in our society, including those who live with disabilities, those who are cognitively impaired, and those who are poor. I figure this is a biblical imperative and that we must be prayerful and discerning as our society balances compassion and justice. 

It happens that I read about George Carey on Saturday, the same day the Globe and Mail included an article about MAID. Here are a couple of paragraphs from this piece: 

Last year in Ontario, 116 of 4,644 MAID provisions, or 2.5 per cent, were identified as “track two,” a category reserved for patients whose deaths aren’t reasonably foreseeable. That’s down from 121 such cases in Ontario the year before.

“MAID has uncovered and put a light on these vulnerable people,” said Konia Trouton, a member of the review committee who is also president of the Canadian Association of MAiD Assessors and Providers, or CAMAP. “I think clinicians who are jumping into this work do have to engage more in very careful analysis of everything that might impact someone’s ability to cope.”

I hadn't been aware that along with the safeguards in place before MAID is administered there is a post mortem review process. 

Ontario has a dedicated team of nurse coroners who review about 400 MAID cases a month after the fact, according to Dr. Huyer. The new 16-member expert committee’s job is to identify worrisome trends or shortcomings in how MAID is being carried out, and to recommend improvements to governments, regulators and front-line providers.

I discovered online that there were about 123,000 deaths of all kinds in Ontario from June 2022 to June 2023 so MAID represented about three percent. The percentage of people availing themselves of assisted dying has increased during the past eight years, certainly, but the average age is still around 78. I'm not clever enough to figure out what the number of "track two" deaths is as a percentage of 123,000 but it is miniscule, thank God. 

That said, every life is precious and Jesus said this explicity in a time when life was often "nasty, brutish, and short." Today a lot of Christian denominations are struggling to survive, let alone engage in important ethical and moral conversations, including the ongoing one concerning Medical Assistance in Dying. Still, we can't leave this to legislators and justices and at the very least we can pray for discernment and wisdom as the followers of the Loving and Living Christ.