Blind Canadian minister condemns proposed euthanasia for disabled infants

By Jonathon Van Maren

Justin Trudeau’s minister of disability inclusion has condemned the recent suggestion of Dr. Louis Roy of Quebec’s College of Physicians that euthanasia should be an option for infants below the age of one “with severe deformities and very serious syndromes for which the chances of survival are virtually nil, and which will cause so much pain that a decision must be made not to allow the child to suffer.” 

While speaking to CBC Radio’s “The House,” Minister Carla Qualtrough stated that while she does not speak for the entire Trudeau government, “there is no world where I would accept that.” Further, she stated: “I find that completely shocking and unacceptable. I would never support going down that road.” Considering the Trudeau government’s resolute commitment to ignoring the pleas of the disability and mental health community on so-called “safeguards” for assisted suicide, it is pleasantly surprising that a minister in this government could be “shocked” by anything at all. 

Qualtrough herself is legally blind and admitted that she has been disturbed by the growing volume of reports that people with disabilities are opting for assisted suicide because they cannot find the care and support that they need. “Working with the disability community and hearing very regularly that people’s options around MAID are being driven by a lack of social supports is devastating,” she said. As the CBC—which championed the legalization of assisted suicide—bluntly put it: “Qualtrough said it should not be easier to access a medically assisted death than to get a wheelchair — but it is.” 

The state broadcaster also admits what many opponents of the new suicide regime have been saying for years—that “the federal government was warned by many disability advocates of the risk of disabled people seeking assisted deaths because inadequate supports left them feeling they had no other options.” Inclusion Canada, a group that “works on behalf of Canadians with intellectual disabilities,” called the recent changes to widen eligibility for MAiD their “worst nightmare” and a “moral affront.” 

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