Medical Assistance in Dying is Canada’s euthanasia programme. It started in 2016 with a Supreme Court decision but has since rapidly expanded and liberalised. The latest battleground is over mental health. The government has committed to changing its laws so that people suffering solely from mental health conditions can request doctors end their lives, but in January was forced to delay the roll-out of this for a second time over concerns the healthcare system was not equipped to properly assess a new wave of mentally unwell people for an assisted death. In the face of this news, it seemed like a good idea to return to an episode we first broadcast over a year ago, featuring a Christian psychiatrist from Canada. In it we discuss Canada’s slippery slope since euthanasia was legalised, and what it is like to practice medicine in a system where vulnerable unwell people can now be offered a quick death rather than compassionate, long-term treatment.
What can we learn from how the early church lived out their faith during their own pandemics?