Not Your Standard Exit Interview - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
Not Your Standard Exit Interview
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Ali Tate’s grandmother is dying. Diagnosed with terminal cancer, she has chosen to enroll in Canada’s medical assistance in dying (MAID) program. Tate, a model and with 256,000 Instagram followers, shared several videos about her grandmother’s decision last week. 

Tate’s account gained attention when she posted a short video sharing that she was taking her grandmother out for dinner for the last time before she is scheduled to die. The video has over 13.6 million views on TikTok alone. 

Influencer Opens Up About Grandmother’s Decision to Die

In response to comments on this first video, Tate posted a second video in which she asks her grandmother questions about her decision to enroll in MAID: “What are your thoughts as you move closer to the date? … Are you nervous? Are you excited?” 

To Tate’s credit, she seems to be genuinely grappling with her grandmother’s decision. Since going viral, she has posted several Instagram stories that acknowledge the slippery slope created by MAID and recognize the need for continued discussion. She confessed that she originally had “moral questions” about her grandmother’s choice. 

But moral questions and the pricks of conscience are quickly assuaged in a culture riddled with the ethos of radical individualism. Tate explains why she supports her grandmother’s choice to die: “I am libertarian which means I believe in body sovereignty and autonomy first and foremost. I would never believe I have the authority to tell someone what to do with their body.”

Tate’s further comments reveal the extent to which the libertarian mind-virus has rendered her incapable of wrestling with the questions of life and death. “She isn’t hurting anyone else,” Tate says. “People need to be left to make their own decisions and it’s our job to respect them. We don’t have to like them, but we need to honor them.” The deathly side of ‘live and let live” is starting to show. You don’t have to choose MAID yourself, the logic goes, but you’re a totalitarian if you don’t agree that doctors should be able to kill their patients upon request. 

MAID and the Lie of Radical Autonomy

The responses given by Tate’s grandmother reveal that she views MAID as a final act of bodily autonomy. “It’s like the light at the end of the tunnel,” her grandmother said. “I’ve always made my own decisions for myself living, and I trust I will in death.” 

She continues: “I’m looking forward to just putting an end to being dependent, to [having] no control.” 

It is better, in her mind, to end life through a singular choice than to experience the slow loss of total autonomy. But that total autonomy never existed in the first place. 

Tate, her grandmother, and the rest of society have been spoonfed the same lie of complete individualism. By aspiring to an absolutized independence — an idealized state where a person serves no one and relies upon no one — our culture has forgotten what it means to be human. In the 21st century, we treat dependence as a disease. And doctors are peddling a so-called cure: death.

Tate, her grandmother, and other proponents of MAID might believe that the procedure offers greater freedom to patients, but a glance to the oft-forgotten northern border reveals that the opposite is true. 

Doubtful of the Slippery Slope? Just Look at Canada.

Over 10,000 Canadians chose physician-assisted suicide in 2021. Since then, the nation’s euthanasia laws have only become more permissive, expanding to allow doctors to peddle death to adults seeking resources for mental health. (RELATED: The Canadian Government Is Euthanizing People Who Have Nothing Wrong With Them)

According to the New York Post, the number of physician-assisted suicides increased in 2022 by about a third. Euthanasia is touted by doctors and activists alike as a “way out” for patients faced with terminal diagnoses, disabilities, or even just high medical expenses. “A number of disabled Canadians have decided to be killed in the face of mounting bills,” the New York Post reports

In February of this year, the Canadian Parliament’s Special Committee on Medical Assistance in Death recommended expanding euthanasia to “mature minors.” This would make death an option for terminally ill children between the ages of 14 to 17. 

But Canada’s laws are restrictive compared to those in the Netherlands. The country’s laws already permit euthanasia for children over the age of 12. Infanticide is also allowed, as parents and doctors have the option to kill terminally ill children before their first birthday. Last month, it was announced that the Netherlands will now permit euthanasia for children between the ages of 1–12 years old. 

Though support for euthanasia often comes from libertarians in the name of autonomy, MAID has proven to be a power vehicle for coercion. Doctors push euthanasia as an easy “solution” to suffering, especially for disabled adults. One leader described Canada’s law as “probably the biggest existential threat to disabled people since the Nazis’ program in Germany in the 1930s.”

When Randy Obenauer, a 74-year-old Canadian, needed additional care, his care providers “asked if he would be interested in undergoing euthanasia instead.” A tweet sharing his story was circulated earlier this year. 

Theresia Degener, a professor of law and disabilities studies, said: “The implication of [Canada’s] law is that a life with disability is automatically less worth living and that in some cases, death is preferable.”

New York Times columnist Ross Douthat weighed in on the subject earlier this year, writing:

It is barbaric, however, to establish a bureaucratic system that offers death as a reliable treatment for suffering and enlists the healing profession in delivering this “cure.” And while there may be worse evils ahead, this isn’t a slippery slope argument: When 10,000 people are availing themselves of your euthanasia system every year, you have already entered the dystopia.

Advocates for euthanasia don’t present it as dystopia; they dress up death with glossy platitudes about choice, inevitability, and peace of mind. Death is peddled by doctors, shared as a “compassionate alternative” or an “exercise of freedom” by family members, and glorified by Hollywood. 

But make no mistake — euthanasia is a violation of medical ethics, a profound rejection of inherent human dignity, and one of many lies that seeks to destroy life in the name of “autonomy.” 

Mary Frances Myler is a postgraduate fellow at the Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government. 

READ MORE by Mary Frances Myler: 

My Religion Is Not Your Costume

Continued Decline in Religion Spells Trouble for the Culture War

Blow Out the Candle, Bigot

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