It is probably comes as no surprise to you that Canada would allow doctor assisted suicide. In Canada it is called “Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID). This became legal in 2016. The law allows patients with “grievous and irremediable” medical conditions to request a lethal drug to end their lives that is either physician or self-administered. One of the requirements was that death was reasonably foreseeable. In 2021, eligibility for MAID was expanded to include applicants with “grievous and irremediable conditions” whose deaths are not reasonably foreseeable – that is, it includes people who struggle with mental health problems.
Kiano Vafaeian was euthanized on December 30, 2025, in British Columbia at age 26. His family says he was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 4 and began struggling with his mental health after a car accident at age 17. In particular, he struggled with depression. According to his mother, his depression was often seasonal. However, after losing vision in one eye in 2022, he became “obsessed” with MAID and wanted to put an end to his life.
In 2022, after a Toronto doctor initially approved Vafaeian’s request, the family launched a public pressure campaign on social media to express their opposition. This caused enough of a stir that the doctor backed out of his approval. While Vafaeian was initially angry about this, over the following year he showed signs of improvement – even moving in with his parents in 2024. According to his mother, “He tried his best when he was in one of those good periods. However, when fall started coming around, he started changing and then everything that we had worked for from spring and summertime just disappeared … he would start talking about MAID again.”
He continued, however, contacting various doctors until finally Dr. Ellen Wiebe, a prominent MAID provider, helped him take his life. His parents believe this doctor actually coached him on what to say in order to meet the MAID criteria.
Even worse, Vafaeian’s parents say they were not notified of the approval and only learned of his death after it had occurred. They also noted that his medical records did not back up the “severe peripheral neuropathy” listed on his death certificate as a qualifying factor.
While Canada is far ahead of the U.S. on this, America is not immune to it. Currently there are 13 states plus the District of Columbia that allow it – the most recent, as of this writing, being New York which approved it February 7, 2026.
Of course, the whole idea of allowing this step, according to advocates, is to “help people who are suffering.” And while that seems to some people like a laudable goal, what it actually does is demonstrate a very low value for life. And as for where this kind of mindset originates, it comes from a naturalistic worldview. It is just the opposite of what is derived from a biblical worldview that puts ultimate value on human life.
Naturalism is the belief that the natural universe, operating by natural laws, is all that exists. There is no God or any kind of transcendent reality. If that is true, then there is no possibility but that human life is the result of naturalistic evolution, and there is no afterlife. Human beings are nothing more the animal species with the most highly developed brain. Humans are considered no more valuable than any other animal, and it is okay to kill humans just as you might humanely euthanize a dog that got injured in a car accident.
That is not, of course, how a biblical worldview portrays human life. Based on biblical teaching, God created human beings special and for a purpose. Humans are the only created creatures with the capacity for self-conscious personal relationships – and God created us that way so that we could self-consciously have a personal relationship with Him. Beyond that, He revealed that it is against His will to take innocent human life. And that is exactly what assisted suicide is – the taking of innocent human life.
It truly is unfortunate that we live in a fallen world where pain and suffering exist. But the remedy for that is not killing people, but to allow God to work through the world’s fallenness to accomplish a greater purpose – which is exactly what He does all the time.
God created every individual for a purpose, and that applies no matter what difficulties one might have to endure. The key, for anyone who is willing to go forward in the midst of the struggles, is to come to grips with what God’s will is, and to live it out in life. When that happens, a person finds meaning in life in the midst of whatever difficulty they face.
Here is a bonus clip for you that I believe you will find inspiring. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8lf6-TQ4hS0