Horrific killing of a Canadian grandma exposes Democrats euthanasia goal for the rest of us

Legalized homicide is now the cause of one out of every 20 Canadian deaths.The country’s “medical assistance in dying” regime — MAID — has been in effect for 10 years and has taken an estimated 100,000 lives.The numbers, and shocking stories like Brigitte Stegemann’s, are a warning to America of what the euthanasia movement has in store for us.Stegemann was an 83-year-old woman who did not understand that the procedures she allegedly consented to would lead to her death.According to her granddaughter, when she explained to Stegemann what was going to happen, the elderly woman started crying and said she’d made a mistake.She was put to death anyway on July 10, over her granddaughter’s objections.The old and ill are vulnerable.But even for young and mostly healthy individuals, hospitals and other medical facilities can be high-pressure environments where people who are sick or in pain can’t always make clear and well-considered decisions.Patients are weak; medical establishments and their administrators are comparatively strong — so much so that even hints and suggestions can be taken as commands by the infirm or excessively trusting.In the context of euthanasia, no safeguards can prevent killing without consent.The only variable is how often it happens.Yet homicide with consent is an abuse in itself, placing the medical profession in the service not of life but of death.With health-care systems as bureaucratic as those of America, Canada and the rest of the Western world, the decision to kill might as well be made by a machine — and in the name of efficiency it probably won’t be long before artificial intelligence is calling the shots, even when those shots are lethal injections.It’s true that medicine can now prolong life without restoring health, making dying a lengthier process than it may once have been.As our population gets older, the right care for those nearing the end of their lives will become an ever more challenging issue.But kil...