(LifeSiteNews) — On this week’s solo episode of The Van Maren Show, Jonathon explains why demographic and cultural crises afflicting Western nations are leading to increased support for legal euthanasia.
Jonathon bases his observations on a column by British Member of Parliament (MP) Matthew Parris that defends euthanasia. He opines that Parris, despite defending euthanasia, is also being “brutally honest” by facing “head-on” the problems the West faces and the “schizophrenic views” people seem to hold on politics and culture, even if the solution Parris proposes is wrong.
Meanwhile, Jonathon also notices a push for abortion while countries in the developed world are having difficulty producing the next generation, reading headlines that deal with dropping birth rates in various Western and non-Western countries. “Children are the future, and if we do not have those children, we do not have that future,” Jonathon remarks, looking to Japan as an example.
Speaking to the abortion push, Jonathon notes that in both Europe and the United States, there is “one of the biggest pushes for extreme abortion laws” not seen in decades. The American situation is predictable after the fall of Roe v. Wade, but the backlash to its fall is also seen elsewhere. “The response of the Western elites to [the demographic crisis] is incredibly bizarre, in that they seem to be firmly committed to not recognizing that problem,” he says.
Looking to his native Canada as an example, a nation dealing with a falling birth rate while simultaneously looking to offer women free contraception, Jonathon says, “You’d have to be a truly, truly committed ideologue to look at where Canada is and think, ‘I know what we need. We need to pay for birth control pills. That’s definitely a national priority right now. We need to garnish the wages of hard-working Canadians and pay for fewer babies, because that makes sense.’”
“This is just objectively idiotic by any standard, regardless of whether or not you are religious,” he adds. Meanwhile, what happens when a country’s birth rate declines is the importation of immigrants for the sake of the national workforce – something that has been seen in many Western countries to keep a tax base for the provision of a welfare state.
Furthermore, the timing of the push for euthanasia policies coincides with the timing of the original abortion laws in Western countries. Jonathon explains that decades of abortion and contraception have left countries without the necessary population replacement rate and an increasing number of elderly people, which is putting strain on national healthcare systems with the accompanying diminishing tax base. “What did we think was going to happen?” asks Jonathon. All the while, society is witnessing increases in mental illness, social atomization, loneliness, and anxiety.
“Legal euthanasia essentially serves as a pressure valve,” opines Jonathon. “It’s a really cynical way of dealing with the problems that we have created with the Sexual Revolution, and that we are unwilling in many cases … or potentially unable to solve.”
He examines Parris’ article toward the end of the episode, claiming that Parris wrote what euthanasia activists have said in private yet publicly denied. Parris maintains it is not a bad thing for terminally ill patients to hasten their own demise – something Jonathon notes many anti-euthanasia activists “knew … was coming” for a while. The Van Maren Show is hosted on numerous platforms, including Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube, iTunes, and Google Play.
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