Involuntary euthanasia: Next step in Canada’s descent into madness

Since 2016, over 100,000 Canadian lives have been claimed by assisted suicide. The system has created no shortage of tragic tales: a 26-year-old with depression “shopped around” for a doctor to sign off on his death; a disabled man applied for medical assistance in dying because he feared going homeless; multiple veterans have been offered MAiD on the phone while attempting to access healthcare.But a recent story sheds light on a possible next step for the atrocities of Canada’s MAiD regime: involuntary euthanasia.According to the Daily Mail, the family of an 83-year-old Canadian woman alleges that she was euthanized against her will — covered in blood and with her hands clasped in prayer. Brigitte Stegmann was killed by Canada’s MAiD program in July 2026. Her granddaughter, Brigitte Kranendonk, claims that her grandmother rejected the option of assisted suicide because of her religious convictions as a Christian.But according to Stegmann’s family, the staff at the care home were relentless. Kranendonk and her husband left the country for 10 days. The family alleges that the care facility continued to discuss the possibility of MAiD while they were gone, even after Stegmann had said no and behind her family’s back. When Kranendonk returned, her grandmother already had her first MAiD assessment.Kranendonk made sure to be in the room for the second MAiD assessment, which also judged mental competence. She claims that the doctor spoke in loose terms, avoiding words like “death” or “dying.” Rather, she alleges that MAiD was described as medicine that would make her “feel at peace.” Kranendonk’s grandmother, who spoke English as a second language and had a hearing impairment, simply nodded along.During the cognitive assessment, Kranendonk wasn’t able to answer basic questions about her personal life, claiming that she had zero siblings when she in fact had 13. Despite this, the doctor cleared Stegmann as “capable of making her own decision” and was deemed fit for MAiD.Kranendonk was convinced her grandmother couldn’t consent to MAiD and continued to advocate against the procedure. But the death was scheduled regardless.Stegmann’s family describes the day of her death as traumatic and says she never gave the required final confirmation of consent. According to the family, the doctor struggled to insert the IV, leaving Stegmann covered in blood. The doctor then allegedly asked whether she wanted the “medicine,” but proceeded even though Stegmann did not answer. She was pronounced dead 10 minutes later.While Stegmann’s story has shocked the world, those who have been keeping up with Canada’s MAiD regime might not be as surprised.Earlier this year, a former professor of mine warned me about the risk of involuntary euthanasia. He wrote to me, “I continue to maintain that if we continue with MAiD then we shall soon legitimate killing the elderly (against their will).” I was shocked by the prediction, which seemed realistic yet confined to a far-away dystopian future, one we still had time to resist.As it turns out, that reality is already here — and the signs were apparent from the beginning.Canadians were sold assisted suicide as a merciful medical response to suffering. But when eligibility rests not simply on consent but on disability, illness, or mental suffering, the law sends a dangerous message: healthy people deserve suicide prevention, while the disabled, elderly, and mentally ill deserve suicide assistance. The assumption is that those lives are of lesser quality and not worth living.The result is predictable: Society begins to view those lives as possessing less value. That view is what allowed Canadian doctors to suggest MAiD for disabled infants, as the Quebec College of Physicians did in 2022.IN FOCUS: WHERE DOES SARAH PALIN GO FOR HER APOLOGY ON DEATH PANELS?Stegmann’s caretakers seemed to share this view. When Kranendonk asked why MAiD was raised again after her grandmother had already refused it, she said the nurse defended the decision as being in Stegmann’s best interest.Once society accepts that some people are better off dead, consent becomes a mere formality for doctors who see death as mercy.Liana Graham is a research assistant in domestic and economic policy at the Heritage Foundation.