On Friday, PJ Media posted an article detailing the plight of a homeless man in Canada. The story is an example of what happens when well-meaning people forget that all life has value.
The article reports:
Amir Farsoud — whose sad story I shared with you in 2022 — won’t have to choose between going homeless or being euthanized by the Canadian government. This is what passes for good news some days.
A CityNews video report from November of that year covered Farsood’s financial troubles and was headlined, “MAID As an Alternative to Poverty,” and that pretty much sums it up. Farsood had been homeless before and, while only just disabled enough to qualify for the “Medical Assistance in Dying” law’s tender mercies, he considered a homeless winter to be a death sentence worse than euthanasia.
“I don’t want to die,” Farsood said, “but I don’t want to be homeless more than I want to die.” He had put himself on the 90-day dying waiting list — Ontario’s list for housing assistance is 10 years long — when his story got people to donate enough money to get him back on his feet.
Recently, Farsood was featured on a BBC documentary called “Better Off Dead?” He said in the documentary that he made it clear to medical professionals that the only reason he was choosing MAID was due to his housing situation.
“I did tell my doctor right off the bat that while I qualify for medical reasons, the reason I’m asking is my socio-economic position at the moment.”
They put him on the death list anyway. He wasn’t suffering from a terminal illness. He wasn’t a quadriplegic, trapped in a hospital bed for years. He didn’t suffer from “grievous and irremediable medical conditions,” as the law originally required. He was just suffering from chronic back pain and he was broke.
The article notes:
As I wrote back then, Canada’s MAID law had just been expanded to cover euthanasia for almost anyone who wanted it. In force only since 2016, MAID originally provided the option of suicide to terminally ill adults. Since then, the law has been amended to allow those suffering from mental illnesses to have the government shove them off this mortal coil, starting in 2024.
Euthanasia is not healthcare just as abortion is not healthcare. Ending a life is not healthcare. Deciding to help someone end their life is not helping them. We have overstepped our bounds as people and are trying to play god. That never ends well.