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PaperclipPerfector  7d ago (text post)   22307 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of August 10, 2026

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Popping the filter bubble and the sanctity of life.

This Tuesday I was presented with a piece of Trivia that brought me up short.

More people are killed each year by doctors in Canada than are killed by gun violence in the US.

My initial reaction was to quite literally exclaim "bullshit!" but having looked into it, there does appear to be a case. According to the Sixth Annual Report on Medical Assistance in Dying in Canada (which is currently the most recent report available) Canadian doctors euthanized 16,499 individuals in 2024, an increase of 7.5% over the 15,343 euthanized in 2023. Meanwhile The Trace a website maintained by the Gun Control advocacy organization Everytown USA maintains that there were 14,651 instances of Homicide by Gunshot in 2025. While this number does not include self-inflicted gunshots (IE Suicides) it does include an estimated 1,200 cases where the shooting was likely justified (IE suspects being shot by police or by would-be victims) and at least 2 instances of execution by firing squad.

Upon review of those numbers and their associated trend-lines where instances of euthanasia in Canada have increased with each consecutive year since it was legalized, while homicide in the US has been trending downward for the last 5 years from it's Pandemic-era peak it actually seems likely to me that more people are killed by doctors in Canada than are killed by guns in the US. Not "per capita" but by raw quantity (16 thousand people and change versus 14 thousand and change).

Considering the above in the context of another story that came across my feed a couple weeks ago. A Ghoulish Proposal Gets a Prestige Endorsement, it seems to me that there is a concerted effort on the part of certain factions to commodify and devalue Human life. See this story from the New York Times last year Organ Donors are too Rare we Need a New Definition of Death. I expect the media to assure me that that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy announcing that the Network for Hope (an organ procurement non-profit serving Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio) having had their certification revoked on the basis of credible claims that many donors were not legally dead at the time their organs were harvested is completely unrelated.

On a slightly different track, back when Harris was running for president there was this "ridiculous claim" that the Left wanted to legalize Abortion up to the moment of crowning, but just this Monday, Massachusetts became the 10th state in the union to do just that.

As in my prior "Popping filter bubbles" posts I don't feel like any of these things really warrant a post on their own, but when taken together they illustrate a trend, and I find myself lacking the vocabulary to describe my growing sense of unease with where this one seems to be going.

There's a repeating discourse cycle where first a conservative sounds the alarm with raw MAID numbers, and then someone else comes in and provides a more detailed breakdown showing it's overwhelmingly old people near death who use MAID (as aqouta does below). I'm not a big fan of the state killing young healthy people with depression (even at their own request) but I've seen this cycle so many times that I basically tune out any anti-MAID people who just post raw numbers.

If you're conservative and you want to persuade people who don't share your worldview but think there's some potential for state overreach or bad norms, it's counterproductive to sound the alarm with these high headline numbers when many people are okay with use case that makes up the vast majority. Tell me if there is large percentage growth in specifically young healthy people with mental illness. Tell me if MAID is increasing total completed voluntary deaths among physically healthy people rather than displacing suicides. But if you just post "the total number of MAID uses is going up" and then someone else says "that's 95% old people or people near death" you haven't popped my filter bubble, you've reinforced it.

95% oldies today. What about tomorrow?

How many users of artificial contraception today are married couples with a kid or two just using it to space out their family so they will end up with three, four, or five children over a sensible period? But that's how it started, and that was the exact same argument: oh don't try and scare me, the numbers don't bear it out.

I've had an interest in tracking this particular issue through the Anglican Communion and I think it's instructive as to how acceptance changes social attitudes, then social attitudes further soften on acceptance, in a circle. "The Lambeth Conference is a decennial international gathering of bishops from the Anglican Communion, convened by the Archbishop of Canterbury"; basically it's where they gather to thrash out pastoral questions and applications of theology to the practice of the churches.

1920 Lambeth Conference: no-no to contraception, it is wrong and sinful

Resolution 70
Problems of Marriage and Sexual Morality
The Conference urges the importance of enlisting the help of all high-principled men and women, whatever be their religious beliefs, in co-operation with or, if necessary, in bringing pressure to bear upon, authorities both national and local, for removing such incentives to vice as indecent literature, suggestive plays and films, the open or secret sale of contraceptives, and the continued existence of brothels.

1930 Lambeth Conference: well okay but only for married couples in cases of necessity

Resolution 15
The Life and Witness of the Christian Community - Marriage and Sex
Where there is clearly felt moral obligation to limit or avoid parenthood, the method must be decided on Christian principles. The primary and obvious method is complete abstinence from intercourse (as far as may be necessary) in a life of discipline and self-control lived in the power of the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless in those cases where there is such a clearly felt moral obligation to limit or avoid parenthood, and where there is a morally sound reason for avoiding complete abstinence, the Conference agrees that other methods may be used, provided that this is done in the light of the same Christian principles. The Conference records its strong condemnation of the use of any methods of conception control from motives of selfishness, luxury, or mere convenience.

Resolution 17
The Life and Witness of the Christian Community - Marriage and Sex
While the Conference admits that economic conditions are a serious factor in the situation, it condemns the propaganda which treats conception control as a way of meeting those unsatisfactory social and economic conditions which ought to be changed by the influence of Christian public opinion.

Resolution 18
The Life and Witness of the Christian Community - Marriage and Sex
Sexual intercourse between persons who are not legally married is a grievous sin. The use of contraceptives does not remove the sin. In view of the widespread and increasing use of contraceptives among the unmarried and the extention of irregular unions owing to the diminution of any fear of consequences, the Conference presses for legislation forbidding the exposure for sale and the unrestricted advertisement of contraceptives, and placing definite restrictions upon their purchase.

1948 Lambeth Conference - nothing about contraception, they were much more worried about divorce becoming widespread and easily available, and divorced people wanting to remarry in the Church. And warning against marrying Roman Catholics.

1958 Lambeth Conference - God wants you to use contraception! (but only if you're married):

Resolution 115 The Family in Contemporary Society - Marriage
The Conference believes that the responsibility for deciding upon the number and frequency of children has been laid by God upon the consciences of parents everywhere; that this planning, in such ways as are mutually acceptable to husband and wife in Christian conscience, is a right and important factor in Christian family life and should be the result of positive choice before God. Such responsible parenthood, built on obedience to all the duties of marriage, requires a wise stewardship of the resources and abilities of the family as well as a thoughtful consideration of the varying population needs and problems of society and the claims of future generations.

1968 Lambeth Conference - the Catholics are wrong in "Humanae Vitae", technically you should only be contracepting if you're married and planning to have kids eventually but eh, we all know how society is going:

Resolution 22 Responsible Parenthood
This Conference has taken note of the papal encyclical letter "Humanae vitae" recently issued by His Holiness Pope Paul VI. The Conference records its appreciation of the Pope's deep concern for the institution of marriage and the integrity of married life.

Nevertheless, the Conference finds itself unable to agree with the Pope's conclusion that all methods of conception control other than abstinence from sexual intercourse or its confinement to periods of infecundity are contrary to the "order established by God." It reaffirms the findings of the Lambeth Conference of 1958 contained in Resolutions 112, 113, and 115 which are as follows:

  1. The Conference records its profound conviction that the idea of the human family is rooted in the Godhead and that consequently all problems of sex relations, the procreation of children, and the organisation of family life must be related, consciously and directly, to the creative, redemptive, and sanctifying power of God.

  2. The Conference affirms that marriage is a vocation to holiness, through which men and women may share in the love and creative purpose of God. The sins of self-indulgence and sensuality, born of selfishness and a refusal to accept marriage as a divine vocation, destroy its true nature and depth, and the right fullness and balance of the relationship between men and women. Christians need always to remember that sexual love is not an end in itself nor a means to self-gratification, and that self-discipline and restraint are essential conditions of the responsible freedom of marriage and family planning.

  3. The Conference believes that the responsibility for deciding upon the number and frequency of children has been laid by God upon the consciences of parents everywhere; that this planning, in such ways as are mutually acceptable to husband and wife in Christian conscience, is a right and important factor in Christian family life and should be the result of positive choice before God. Such responsible parenthood, built on obedience to all the duties of marriage, requires a wise stewardship of the resources and abilities of the family as well as a thoughtful consideration of the varying population needs and problems of society and the claims of future generations.

The Conference commends the Report of Committee 5 of the Lambeth Conference 1958, together with the study entitled "The Family in Contemporary Society" which formed the basis of the work of that Committee, to the attention of all men of good will for further study in the light of the continuing sociological and scientific developments of the past decades.

1978 Lambeth Conference - contraception? birth control? Nah, we've moved on to the gays now.

So it took just 48 years to move from "the only permissible form of birth control is abstinence" to "that's wrong, dumb Romans! (let's not mention that used to be our position too)" and then another 10 years to capitulate on social acceptance and increasingly widespread sex outside of marriage and use of contraception.

60 years from "this is wrong and sinful" to "this is your duty, God says".

Things move a lot faster today. Don't presume that "95% oldies" now is going to remain "95% oldies" in future.

There are countries where assisted suicide has been legal for decades.

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