Abolishing MAiD: Time to Save Our Children

By Bill Vassilopoulos

Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) is continuously packaged and presented to the public under the banner of modern compassion. But when you peel back the sterile, institutional rhetoric, a far more chilling reality emerges: our society is rapidly normalizing death as a standardized clinical solution to human suffering.

Let’s be entirely clear about the boundaries of true societal care. Financial hardship, social isolation, and systemic poverty should never be treated as implicit qualifiers for terminal intervention in any civilized nation. A twelve-year-old child navigating severe anxiety or a teenager battling deep depression should never be viewed as a candidate for an institutionalized pathway to death.

Canada has spent generations building robust infrastructure—hospitals, community clinics, specialized crisis networks, and support facilities—designed explicitly to protect, shelter, and heal the vulnerable. Our mandate must be to fix these systems of care, not to give up on the people inside them.

There was a time in our history when Canada recognized that state-sanctioned termination was fundamentally incompatible with human dignity, leading us to abolish the death penalty. Now, as the parameters of medical intervention continue to bleed into areas once considered unthinkable, it is time to face the truth. It is time to abolish MAiD.

The Distortion of Purpose

A deeply dangerous narrative has taken root across our culture. Social media platforms are flooded with a form of performative, superficial compassion that distorts the inherent value of human life. It pushes an unnatural expectation that human beings are meant to exist in a state of unceasing, effortless happiness.

But the reality of the human condition is entirely different. Resilience, endurance, and the hard work of finding meaning through intense hardship are the exact attributes that sustain us. No lasting relationship, no deep bond, and no true community exists because everything was seamless—profound connections are forged and tempered in the fires of shared difficulty.

The modern "pursuit of happiness" is deeply misunderstood. Growth, depth, and a true sense of existential purpose are never handed out as cheap prizes; they are born directly from struggle. MAiD risks becoming the ultimate institutional shortcut—a final, irreversible decision offered by a rotating door of professionals who may never fully comprehend the intricate, messy, and beautiful reality of a patient’s complete story.

It quietly whispers a predatory message to the suffering: that a life marked by temporary or long-term pain is a life no longer worth living. But what if that moment of crushing despair is temporary? What if choosing to stay, choosing to fight, leads to a profound chapter of meaning completely invisible from the valley of depression?

A Firsthand Truth

I do not write these words from a place of detached theory. I know the weight of this issue with absolute certainty because I survived a suicide attempt at eighteen years old.

If the system had failed me then—if an expedited, medicalized exit had been normalized and made accessible to me in that dark hour—the consequences would have rippled across generations:

• My parents would have endured the unnatural agony of burying their young son.

• My siblings would have permanently lost their brother.

• My beautiful wife, my children, and my grandchildren would quite literally never exist.

Pain, no matter how blindingly intense, passes. Death does not.

None of the legacy, the joy, or the purpose I have lived to experience would exist if I had given up in my darkest moment. Life is not easy—it never has been, and it was never promised to be. But it is still entirely worth living. MAiD is not a genuine solution to human misery; it is the catalyst for an endless, lifelong cycle of grief for the families left behind. There is a spark within the human spirit—a deep, divine soul—that inherently recognizes the sacred value of life, even when enveloped in suffering.

The Horizon of Expansion

Canada must take an incredibly hard, honest look at exactly where this institutional trajectory is leading. By March 17, 2027, the federal temporary exclusion is set to expire, officially opening the gateway for medicalized exits based solely on mental health illnesses, psychiatric conditions, and severe emotional distress.

But the boundary lines are blurring even faster than the public realizes. Already, the legislative pipeline and parliamentary committee discussions have laid the groundwork to expand these parameters to "mature minors"—an aggressive push that aims to allow children to bypass parental consent entirely.

Even more chillingly, the Collège des médecins du Québec formally recommended to a federal committee that MAiD be expanded to include infants from birth to one year old who are born with severe syndromes or malformations.

When a medical regulatory board actively advocates for terminal interventions on newborns who cannot speak, choose, or consent, the line between healthcare and predatory utility has completely evaporated. This trajectory raises a critical, terrifying question for every citizen: are we actively expanding our capacity for care, or are we simply expanding access to death?

When the option of a terminal exit is introduced by a medical professional to an isolated patient who never requested it, the line between medical consultation and systemic coercion completely vanishes. In any other secular context, encouraging or facilitating a vulnerable person toward death would be treated as deeply unethical, if not outright criminal. The fundamental moral standard of protection must not change simply because the action occurs within the clean, quiet walls of a healthcare system.

This trajectory must be stopped.

Equip Yourself: Eyes Above the Water

To truly understand the roots of this crisis and protect your loved ones from institutional defaults, we must actively change how we approach mental health and advocacy. My book, Eyes Above the Water, is the culmination of seven years of frontline research, theological reflection, and direct interviews with families affected by the suicide epidemic. It provides a blueprint for restoring hope and defending life when the culture pushes for an early exit.

For a limited time, you can secure the Eyes Above the Water eBook for $13.60 (regularly $17.00).

• Promo Code: SAVE20

Your Free Shield

As part of my commitment to protecting this community, every reader who orders a copy of the book, eBook, or audiobook will receive a Free Medical Directive Card and Health Declaration Form mailed directly to your home. Keep this wallet card with your identification at all times; it establishes an ironclad legal boundary that explicitly forbids unauthorized terminal interventions the moment you enter any hospital or health center.

Let’s stand on the frontline together. Print these entries, share them with your networks, and break the silence.

No matter how dark the horizon appears, anchor your mind in these unshakeable truths:

• You are irreplaceable.

• You are unrepeatable.

• You are highly valued.

• You are NOT a burden. (John 3:16)

Warmly, your friend,

Bill Vassilopoulos

Author, Eyes Above the Water

©2026 Bill Vassilopoulos. All Rights Reserved.

Disclaimer: The contents of this website and book are for educational and advocacy purposes and do not replace professional medical advice.