Canadian Doctors Propose Euthanasia for Disabled Newborns
Critics warn expansion of "assisted dying" risks normalizing infanticide.
Doctors in Canada have suggested that euthanasia may be an “appropriate treatment” for newborn babies with severe disabilities, reigniting concerns about the country’s rapidly expanding assisted suicide program.
The Quebec College of Physicians (CMQ) this week reiterated its position before a parliamentary committee, with spokesperson Dr. Louis Roy recommending euthanasia for infants with “severe deformations” or “very grave medical syndromes.” The CMQ argued that, in such cases, deliberately ending a child’s life constitutes “care.”
The proposal has sparked widespread condemnation. Wesley J. Smith of the Discovery Institute said Canada is “jumping into the euthanasia abyss,” warning that legalizing infanticide is a logical extension of existing policies.
Canada has steadily broadened its assisted suicide laws since 2016, removing the requirement that natural death be “reasonably foreseeable” in 2021 and scheduling the expansion to include mental illness as a sole criterion by 2027. A parliamentary committee has also recommended making assisted dying available to children under certain conditions and more accessible to prisoners.
If adopted, Canada would follow the Netherlands, where euthanasia is permitted for babies under one year with parental consent. Critics note the unsettling historical precedent of Nazi Germany’s euthanasia program in 1939.
In 2023, 15,343 Canadians died through euthanasia or assisted suicide, accounting for 4.7% of all deaths. Right to Life UK condemned the CMQ proposal as “a clear form of eugenic discrimination,” stressing that disabled children “deserve care” rather than euthanasia.
Previously, UOJ released an editorial on physician-assisted suicide as a demonic distortion of a Christian ending to our lives.
