Canada's vulnerability to the culture of death is exacerbated by Canada's single-payer, i.e. state-funded and state-run, health care system. And the brutal fact is that it's more “cost-effective” to euthanize patients than to treat secondary conditions that could turn lethal (like H's infection) or to provide palliative end-of-life care. Last year, when I asked a leading Canadian Catholic opponent of euthanasia why a rich country like the “True North strong and free” couldn't provide palliative end-of-life care for all those with terminal illnesses, relieving the fear of agonized and protracted dying that's one incentive for euthanasia, he told me that only 30 percent of Canadians had access to such care.
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