57: A Canadian Priest on Medical Assistance in Dying

Benjamin Crosby discusses the failure of mainline churches to speak clearly on Canada's euthanasia regime. The Canadian government, several years ago, legalized euthanasia, and Canada now is home to the most permissive euthanasia regime in the world. Ben, an Episcopalian priest in Canada, discusses the failure of the Church to talk about this honestly, and instead its capitulation to the idea that suicide is a generally acceptable way to end one’s life. They discuss the prayers that some Canadian churches have written to be said in advance of a death by euthanasia, and talk about the more fundamental failure to see pastoral care as legitimately shepherding and directive, but merely as supportive of whatever choice a person makes. Finally, they read aloud some of the reader responses to Ben’s piece, and Ben responds.