Editor’s note: This article was updated on September 11 to correct an previous error about the Sarco’s legality in Switzerland.
CV NEWS FEED // A Catholic priest and noted news commentator is sounding the alarm over the high rates of euthanasia deaths that have swept across Canada within the past few years.
The country’s Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD) program “had been promised as a last resort in truly difficult cases. In practice, it has become routine,” Fr. Raymond J. de Souza wrote in an August 18 article in the National Post.
Fr. de Souza serves in the Archdiocese of Ontario and is a senior fellow at the Canadian think tank Cardus. He writes regular columns for the National Catholic Register.
In the National Post article, Fr. de Souza wrote that a recent Cardus study highlighted that in 2016, euthanasia deaths nationally were 1,018 and that by 2022, euthanasia deaths had increased to 13,241 nationally.
According to the Cardus study author Alexander Raikin, there are four causes of death in Canada with numbers higher than euthanasia deaths, and they are cancer, heart disease, COVID-19, and accidents, Fr. de Souza noted.
“Cardus gives us the key facts which are otherwise whispered, if spoken at all: MAiD is now the fifth-leading cause of death in Canada,” Fr. de Souza wrote.
The Cardus study also suggested that research on euthanasia deaths is affected by gaps in precise statistics about when euthanasia was a cause of death.
According to the study, among the “inconsistencies” in cause-of-death statistics is that “some provinces’ death records do not record MAiD as a cause of death, instead recording the underlying condition that led to the MAiD request and subsequent death.”
Criticizing the euthanasia program’s name, Fr. de Souza wrote, “[t]here is nothing ‘medical’ in MAiD; the healing art of medicine is not being engaged.”
“A service is demanded and provided, in a manner more mercenary than medicinal,” he continued, later writing, “Death by robot is on the horizon; DIY ‘suicide pods’ have already been developed abroad.”
The “suicide pod” Fr. de Souza is referring to is the “Sarco”, short for “Sarcophagus.” Customers can commit suicide in the machine at the push of a button, as CatholicVote previously reported. The founder of a pro-assisted suicide organization and an engineer developed the “Sarco” and introduced it in 2019. In Switzerland, the Sarco’s use has been put on hold.
>> Expert: Even pro-euthanasia groups oppose ‘death capsule’ that would cost $20 per person <<
The Cardus study found that from 2019 to 2022, written MAiD requests that were determined “ineligible” decreased from 8% to 3.5%, Fr. de Souza pointed out.
Fr. de Souza wrote that another problem with calling the euthanasia program “Medical Assistance in Dying” is that “there is not, in many cases, anyone ‘dying.’ The initial MAiD requirement for imminent death was abandoned in 2021. Euthanasia has now become death-by-choice, pure and simple.”
>> Canadian pro-life activist: offer of euthanasia to patients has become pervasive <<
