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A Quebec government committee released its report yesterday calling on the National Assembly to legalize euthanasia, or in their words, “to recognize medical aid in dying as an appropriate end to life option.” Given the popular support for euthanasia in the province, it seems assured the government will move to put the report into action in short order.

This would be a disaster not only for Quebec, but for all Canadians because it sets a dangerous precedent for the other provinces. As Dalhousie University ethicist and euthanasia activist Jocelyn Downie told the Montreal Gazette it will serve as “inspiration” for provinces across the country. “I think that Quebec has shown extraordinary leadership in this area,” she said.

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But I want to draw attention in particular to insightful comments by my friend Georges Buscemi, president of Campagne Quebec-Vie, on the report’s dire implications for Quebec itself. He says the report confirms the province’s “collective suicide”: “Only a dramatic turn around will save Quebec from extinction.”

“I really see this people as having completely sawed themselves off from the branch they were sitting on 50 years ago. They’re going to hit the ground soon,” said Buscemi. “This is just another step on that road to perdition.”

“It’s another step down the road to their complete disappearance as a nation, as a thing that existed from 400 years ago. It’s another step toward its extinction,” he added.

Of course, much of Quebec has been almost obsessed with preserving their culture and their very existence as a French Canadian people in recent decades. They’re constantly guarding against encroachments of English Canada with laws that many have called totalitarian.

But the culture they are seeking to preserve has been completely gutted of its heart and soul – the Christian faith – and reduced to language.

It’s ironic, as Buscemi observes, that even as Quebec fights tooth and nail to preserve what remains of its cultural identity, they have at the same time become the author of their own extinction: first, through their horribly low birthrates; second, by aborting more than a quarter of their new citizens; and now, potentially, by allowing the killing of the elderly, sick and disabled.

Let’s pray they turn aside from this disastrous course and find, somehow, a way to return to their Christian roots.

Canadians and Quebeckers alike pride themselves as a society that cares for and loves the hurting and the vulnerable. But does caring for the sick, the elderly and the disabled mean we should be helping them to end their lives?

The sick, the disabled, the elderly deserve special respect, the best care we can offer, but that does not include a premature death. We need to pursue legislative measures and health care solutions that offer true hope and dignity.

Patrick Craine is Canadian Bureau Chief for LifeSiteNews.com and the president of Campaign Life Coalition NS.  He lives with his wife and two children in Nova Scotia.