Welcome to Breakpoint, a daily look at an ever-changing culture through the lens of unchanging truth. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street. In that striking scene in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, Ebernezer Scrooge asks the two men who are raising money for the poor: Are there no prisons? And the union workhouses, are they still in operation? When the charity supporters reply that many would rather die than go to such places, Scrooge replied, if they'd rather die, they'd better do it and decrease the surplus population.
Later in the story, Scrooge is reminded of his dehumanizing words and is ashamed. More recently, in real life Britain, Lord Falconer of Thoriton suggested to the British House of Lords that the poor might be better off dead. Quote, where the reason that you want an assisted death is because in your mind you are influenced by your circumstances, for example, because you are poor, should you be barred from having an assisted death because of your poverty? In my view, not.
Now of course in Britain's nationalized health care system the cost of the procedure for the poor is not at issue. Rather, Lord Falconer seems to be suggesting that the poor should have the right to die if they're ashamed of being poor. Poverty, in his view, is a fate worse than death.
Now most likely Lord Falconer thinks that his appeal is one to charity, like the charity workers of the Christmas Carol. But in reality his advice is indistinguishable from Scrooge. He might as well have asked, are there no euthanasia clinics? And the gas chambers are they still in operation? If they would rather die than be poor, then they'd better do it.
Now Lord Falconer is not suggesting, at least not yet, that the state should round up the poor for suicide pods, though suicide pods are a real thing. He is suggesting that being poor should be added to an ever-growing list of things that make life not worth living. A few years ago, when advocates argued for death in Canada and Colorado, they argued that this was a compassionate choice for those with terminal, painful, physical disease and would die shortly from them. Why prolong their suffering? But there is no slope more slippery than this one.
In both Canada and Colorado, what gets someone approved for death these days has certainly expanded. In Colorado, severe eating disorders qualify. In Holland, an early adopter nation of assisted death, euthanasia has been extended to sick children. In 2022, a Belgian woman who survived a terrorist attack was put to death to save her from her PTSD. Ironically, the terrorists were not killed for their crimes and forgiving her, P T S D.
In Canada, so called medical assistance in dying or MAID is now the fifth leading cause of death. In twenty sixteen, the Canadian Government argued and insisted that only those who faced imminent death would be eligible. But by 2023, this grew to include patients struggling with mental illness and drug addiction. Last year, a Canadian man complained that his PTSD would not qualify him to take advantage of death. But in another case, just a few weeks later, a young woman was granted the right to die.
For autism, the judge ruled that not providing maid in her case would cause, and I quote, irreparable harm. As if death is not irreparable harm. What other trials of life will now be deemed to be suffering, a bad breakup, not getting a wanted job just because we once condemned Nazis for who and why they killed.
Now we've adopted their rhetoric. Every person is made in the image of God and has infinite dignity and worth, not just the healthy, not just the wealthy. Human value is not lessened by pain, disease, or, Lord Falconer, by poverty. The church's task in this moment is quite clear. We must affirm life.
We must defend the vulnerable. We have to reject, in all ways, utilitarian thinking about human value. Once again, as Stanley Hauerwass said: if in a hundred years Christians are known as those who did not kill their children or their elderly, we will have done well. I hope we will be known for more. But Lord help us not to be known.
less. For the Colson Center, I'm John Stone Street with Breakpoint. Today's Breakpoint was co-authored by Dr. Timothy Padgett. If you're a fan of Breakpoint, leave us a review wherever you download your podcast.
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