The state in Canada has euthanised around 80,000 people as part of its Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) programme since its inception in 2016. That’s one in 20 deaths. So far, you have to be over 18 and of sound mind to request termination. The state even pays for it regardless of income, a claim it can’t make about dental care.

To solemnise the occasion, the Anglican Church of Canada has published a series of liturgies to be used at the bishop’s discretion. You can read them here.

Since the church purports to concern itself with ethics, you might be tempted to think it would have something coherent to say about whether offing oneself is a good idea. In all fairness, for some reason do-it-yourself suicide is still frowned by the church but for state administered suicide, all we see in the document is:

It is not our intent to enter into the ethical arguments regarding MAiD, nor to provide a moral argument for or against MAiD

The ACoC must have exhausted all it’s moral argument energy on inclusion, climate change and dismantling racism: important things that keep us all up at night worrying.

The ghoulishness of all this comes home when you read things like (my emphasis):

Once the medical team arrives and begins their work, it can feel a sudden and stark intrusion.

It must take a special kind of doctor for this work.