What Socrates can Teach us About MAiD

The Nicene Creeds affirms that the Son is begotten of the Father and not made of God (since he Himself is divine). This observation flows from the common sense observation that human parents beget children and God makes them as Creator.

MAiD either administers drugs or asks a patient to take a drug that terminates their life. Criminals used to die in this way, as Socrates did. Socrates drank the hemlock cup as a criminal punishment for his impiety and for corrupting the youth.

Now, Socrates did not believe he was committing suicide, since he belied suicide was morally wrong. He reasoned that our bodies are not our own but belong to God. We destroy what God owns, our bodies.

Christians have agreed. God made us. We belong to him. We are the sheep of his pasture. But MAiD presents us with a huge challenge since those who apply for MAiD are: Incurably ill and advancing quickly to death.Usually, Christians have distinguished between killing and pain relief. Giving morphine to a patient TO RELIEVE pain has its purpose in pain relief; although it make quicken death. Intent here is the key.

Here, the reality that God made us remains stable, although arguably quickening death may be unjust in certain respects. Even so, MAiD is not *just* quickening death.

Someone may die soon, but the drug administered in MAiD does not AIM to relieve pain but to terminate life.

The lack of adequate end of life care in Canada makes the whole situation difficult, since the care that palliative and others can give to relieve pain MAY not always be reliable. The woman in the SIMONS ad who died a “beautiful death” so-called only applied to MAiD because she could not access traditional health care.

Incurably suffering without health care leads to death care, that is, to MAiD.

This is a societal problem whose solution relies largely on large swathes of the population deciding that live matters more than the liberty of choice to die.

But that gainsays the liberal tradition of modern Canada; further, we love death as TikTok trends and the popularity of MAiD testify.

Still the Bible remains true: “Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” (Ps 100:3)