(LifeSiteNews) — A Christian pro-life doctor is speaking out against Canada’s medical assistance in dying (MAID) regime as “barbaric,” unconstitutional, and inherently predatory toward the poor and suffering.
Dr. Paul Saba, a family physician based in Montreal and author of the book Made to Live: A Physician’s Journey to Save Life, appeared on today’s episode of The John-Henry Westen Show. He shared the challenges of being a pro-life physician of faith in Justin Trudeau’s Canada, his thoughts on the high costs of healthcare, and explained why assisted suicide is never the right answer to escape suffering and harm.
“With quality palliative care, people don’t suffer. They have supports. They have pain support. They have psychological, physical, nutritional [support],” he said. “And I would say 80% of what they complain about is more psychological suffering, feeling isolated, being a burden.”
Dr. Saba added that pro-euthanasia physicians like to “talk about horrible, agonizing death” and dress up assisted suicide as “glamorous” and “voluntary.” But what they really do is “victimize” people into “wanting to die.”
“That’s how the Germans did it. The Germans made sure doctors were involved so you could say it’s a ‘medical procedure,’” he said. “But it’s not a medical procedure. It never has been a medical procedure. But they’ve medicalized it to justify it.”
In December, the Canadian government indefinitely delayed an expansion of MAID to the mentally ill, and Conservative politicians in particular have been using the opportunity to ensure the idea never resurfaces again.
LISTEN: Canadian man seeking assisted suicide says he cannot afford to live without disability benefits
The pro-life doctor also condemned Canada’s abortion on demand as “euthanasia in utero.” Abortion is legal in Canada up until the moment of birth, with no federal restrictions. As with assisted suicide, Dr. Saba is particularly concerned that many people see abortion as an “economic option” and, in addition to its inherent evil, don’t grasp just how costly to society it is as well.
“We’ve killed the future doctors, nurses, accountants, lawyers, workers through abortion,” he said, “If you look at the U.S. since Roe v. Wade, about 63 million children. You can put Canada around a little over 6 million. Worldwide, probably about 1.5 billion. And that’s an underestimate. But that’s only talking about the first generation of people who are lost, not their children and their children after that. So we’ve created this crisis for ourselves.”
This crisis, Dr. Saba pointed out, also represents the re-emergence of a pagan attitude toward the sick and suffering. Before Christians opened hospitals and clinics to care for as many individuals as possible, the widespread attitude of the Romans, for example, was that it was “noble to kill yourself if you were sick, if you were feeble-minded, if you were handicapped.”
“What is happening right now is barbaric.”
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