Many Americans hear that the Left would like to move our nation toward socialism, but many don’t know exactly what that means.
Some may think that “free” education, healthcare, and other welfare benefits sound like a good thing, until you see the real-life effects of these systems on citizens’ lives.
One example recently reported in Canada should serve as a warning to us all – that these systems put our very lives in peril.
Like most of Europe, our neighbor to the north, Canada, has adopted a socialized healthcare system in which the government regulates funding and medical costs for its citizens.
This also means that oftentimes, profit is placed before the best needs of the patient, especially when it comes to the elderly, terminally ill, or disabled.
If these patients cost too much to keep alive, their lives are typically in jeopardy by government decree.
Canada is also a nation that allows for euthanasia and assisted suicide – and these barbaric practices often help the bottom line of keeping down government medical costs.
The “medical assistance in dying” (MAID) law was passed by the Parliament of Canada in 2016, and while repeated patient consent must be given – including immediately before lethal injection – one has to wonder just how much government-run healthcare systems have to gain by supporting the practice.
Long-term rehabilitation and care centers, as well as nursing homes and hospice centers, are often funded by the government in socialist nations.
And in British Columbia, one hospice society is finding out just how important these euthanasia laws seem to be to the government’s bottom line.
Delta Hospice Society oversees hospice centers run by members of a Board, by whom appropriate decisions on their facilities are made.
One of these centers, the Irene Thomas Hospice, has always been run on Christian values and beliefs, extending compassionate care to its patients at the end of their lives.
The Board had made preparations to send mailers informing members of a meeting on a vote to ban the use of lethal injection on patients at the Thomas Hospice.
But three former board members heard of the plan and went to court to have the vote stopped.
And a British Columbia Supreme Court Judge found in their favor and had the meeting cancelled.
This ruling stemmed from the fact that the Board rejected certain membership applications, including those of former Board members, to participate in the vote.
But the hospice center’s Board let the judge know why these applications were rejected – because the applicants were pro-euthanasia and opposed to the center’s Constitution regarding patient care…
One in which euthanasia at the center would be banned because it does not align with the Christian views the center’s Board holds dear.
The hospice society’s Board Chair, Angelina Ireland, expressed her frustration with the “lack of justice in the court system” over the decision – a decision obviously made due to government bias to keep the practice of euthanasia going.
While the hospice center Board is appealing the decision, they are in danger of losing thousands in costs related to the mailings and meeting preparations for the vote.
Not to mention the ethical and moral issues that are still unresolved so they may continue to protect patient lives.
In what can only be seen as retribution for their attempt to ban euthanasia at their care facilities, the Delta, BC city council unanimously approved a motion that endangers the center’s tax-exempt status and ability to fundraise if they continue to “reject membership applications.”
It appears to be a veiled threat – “allow pro-euthanasia Board members or lose your business.”
And that means potentially abandoning patients currently in their care to the hands of Board members who favor euthanasia and despise the Christian values that prohibit it.
In fact, Delta’s Mayor, George Harvie, spoke at a pro-euthanasia rally after the court ruling was handed down, urging the hundreds of pro-euthanasia attendees to buy memberships for the center, as well as calling for the resignation of Angelina Ireland.
Ireland has been under fire since late last year when she was elected as Board Chair after pro-euthanasia Board members were ousted.
She and her pro-life Christian colleagues have been attacked in the media and online, while those working in the center are doing everything they can to appeal the court decision and prevent the center’s Constitution from being amended.
A Constitution that states that euthanasia is incompatible with moral, compassionate patient care and that it violates the rights of the individual by encouraging a practice that “would hasten a patient’s death,” as reported by LifeSite News.
Canadian national hospice care associations, as well as many hospice physicians, support Ireland and the Delta Hospice Society’s fight to keep euthanasia out of their centers.
But with the city’s mayor and even a BC Supreme Court Judge working against them, there is little doubt how this epic fight to block euthanasia in hospices will end.
Once again, the socialized medical system is putting citizens’ lives below concerns for profit and power.