The United Kingdom has just followed Canada down the Orwellian path to euthanasia. This is the moment when (inevitably) a statist government outs itself as a death cult.

Of course, that’s never how statists explain what they’re doing. Nothing more perfectly shows this than my best recollection of an NPR segment broadcast in 2001 when the Netherlands embraced euthanasia. The host approvingly interviewed a Dutch policymaker who explained why euthanasia was a good idea in the Netherlands while it would be a terrible idea in America.

The secret to the Netherlands’ euthanasia, he said, was socialized medicine.  According to him, in America, where medical costs could bankrupt families, those with terminal illnesses could be actively or passively coerced into turning to euthanasia to save their family’s finances.

His underlying assumption was that, while family members would happily “off” granny to save money or get an inheritance, a civilized European government would never do that. Instead, in its grand beneficence, it would humanely treat all and, impliedly, never force death upon the unwilling.

Image by AI

Of course, the opposite is true. Families operate on love and, even if not so loving, on the Biblical mandates to value human life and honor our parents.

Governments have a different algorithm: Money and power. When the government runs out of money, only the powerful survive. A government does not love its citizens. Their value lies in the benefits they give to the government, whether through labor or their personal wealth.

There’s an old story that perfectly illustrates the statist approach...if you understand that the father in this narrative is the bureaucrat, while the boy is the loving relative:

Long ago in China, a boy coming home from school met up with his father, who was carrying on his back a basket holding the boy’s grandfather.

“Oh, father,” asked the boy, “where are you taking Honorable Grandfather?”

The father signaled that the boy should come closer and then whispered in his ear, “I’m taking grandfather up to the waterfall. If I throw him over the edge suddenly, death will greet him so quickly, it will be painless.”

Aghast, the boy asked, “Why would you do that to Honorable Grandfather?”

“Because I must,” his father whispered back. “Honorable grandfather is too old to help in the field or around the house. Instead, he just sits in the corner, eating our food, drinking our tea, and requiring us to care for his needs. A quick, painless death will be better for everyone.”

The son nodded sagely upon hearing his father’s words. Then, as he turned to continue the walk home, the boy reminded his father of one thing. “Dear father, please make sure to bring the basket back because I’ll need it for you one day.”

The accuracy of that story—that the government will jettison people who have no value—is vividly illustrated in Canada, which embraced euthanasia a few years ago, ostensibly to provide a painless way out for people in the end stage of terminal illnesses. The fact that modern pain management is superb doesn’t factor into this calculation because that same pain management is also expensive.

And so we get to the Canadian reality, which is that people who need wheelchair ramps are encouraged to euthanize themselves. It’s cheaper. Even The Jacobin, a hard-left publication, has figured out that Canada’s “Medical Assistance in Dying” program is being used as a cheap alternative to welfare. (I urge you to read the essay because the author, David Moscrop, has done his research, and the statistics are stomach-churning.)

There’s also a distinct air of licensed serial killing to the whole thing. A doctor named Ellen Wiebe has killed over 400 patients—half her practice—all with state sanction. You won’t be surprised to learn that the other half of her practice is abortion and contraception. She speaks in glowing terms of the pleasure of killing, although she paints it in “humanitarian” language. I’m not calling Wiebe a serial killer, of course, but she’s got a higher body count than Ted Bundy.

Euthanasia is where socialized medicine goes to die...but first, it kills everyone in its clutches. The reality is that modern medicine is expensive because it’s moved far behind a doctor’s black bag with a few sharp and pointed implements and bottles full of “medicines” the doctor compounded himself. Now, it’s high-tech equipment, pharmaceutical magic, and huge, heavily staffed offices and hospitals.

In this medical environment, there are only two ways to bring prices down: the free market and rationing. As these statist systems lose money (and they invariably do), the rationing gets more aggressive.

That’s what’s happening in England. The mismanaged system (mismanaged in part because so many benefits are going to the millions of immigrants who never paid into the system) is going bankrupt. That leaves one alternative, which is brute force rationing by killing users:

The British Parliament has voted in favor of a bill permitting doctors to help patients kill themselves.

In a 330-275 vote, the UK Parliament advanced proposed highly controversial assisted dying legislation, the ‘Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill’ that allows doctors to euthanize their patients under certain conditions. There will now be a third reading.

The outcome of the vote was unclear beforehand, as the bill was highly contested and faced opposition across party lines. The vote was considered a matter of conscience, meaning that MPs were not expected to vote alongside their party’s position. Former Conservative leader Rishi Sunak voted for the measure whereas the new leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, voted against it.

The bill, first introduced by Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, allows adults who are estimated to have less than six months to live the option to kill themselves with the help of doctors. According to the proposed legislation, two doctors and one judge need to approve each case.

As always, this is ostensibly about letting the terminally ill choose an easy way out. And, as always, we know where this will end: Death as a mandate to save the state money.

Americans must resist socialized medicine with every fiber of their beings. And if Donald Trump is smart, he will work on laws and draft regulations that make it easier for the free market to operate within the medical field. Otherwise, it’s not an exaggeration to say that we are doomed...or at least, we’re doomed if we go to the doctor with something eminently treatable but too expensive for a socialized system.