The modern world’s growing acceptance of euthanasia has reached a chilling new stage, targeting children. What began as a movement claiming to preserve “dignity” at life’s end is now expanding into what one journalist calls a “sprawling network” that encourages minors to consider physician-assisted suicide.
According to Fox News reporter Asra Nomani, this global movement, dubbed “Assisted Suicide Inc.”, is “a sprawling network changing laws worldwide, developing euthanasia services for funeral parlors, selling ‘suicide pods,’ promoting ‘suicide tourism’ and even training ‘doulas for death.’” She warns that these efforts are “predatory-like” and aimed at expanding the practice into ever younger age groups.
LifeSiteNews’ Peter Michaels underscores the moral and spiritual implications of this trend, writing that the “well-funded euthanasia industry is now targeting children throughout the West.” According to Nomani’s data, there are 41 such groups in Europe, 31 in North America (including 25 in the U.S.), and 13 in Oceania—a powerful and organized lobby working to normalize death as a medical option.
A Global Push Toward “Mature Minor” Suicide
The push to legalize euthanasia for minors has already taken root in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Colombia, which have all extended euthanasia laws to what they call “mature minors.” As Nomani notes, “three countries – the Netherlands, Belgium and Colombia – have gone further, allowing ‘mature minors’ to die by physician-assisted suicide.”
The Netherlands, where euthanasia has been legal since 2002, now allows doctors to end the lives of children as young as one year old if they are deemed to be “suffering unbearably with no prospects of improvement.” In 2024 alone, euthanasia accounted for nearly 10,000 deaths, or 5.8% of all deaths nationwide, according to Fox’s report.
Meanwhile, in Belgium, children under 18 can request euthanasia with parental consent. Between 2014 and 2024, at least six young people have made such requests. These figures may appear small, but they symbolize a massive moral shift: the deliberate normalization of child suicide under the guise of compassion.
The “Right to Die” Becomes a Cultural Idol
The Canadian organization Dying with Dignity Canada—which reported $3 billion in expenses in 2024 including over $800,000 in advertising—argues that denying “mature minors” access to euthanasia is “unfair.” But as Catholics, we know the truth: life is sacred because it comes from God, not from human consent.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches clearly that “whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick, or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable” (CCC 2277).
When a culture abandons belief in God, it begins to see human life as disposable, a problem to be managed rather than a soul to be loved. As Michaels warns, “the devil’s influence is growing. He is not content to have elderly people end their lives prematurely, but now he wants children to do so as well.”
A Call to Catholic Action
Euthanasia, like abortion, is not merely a legal or social issue; it is a spiritual battle over the meaning of life itself. The growing acceptance of assisted suicide reveals what Pope St. John Paul II called the “culture of death,” which disguises despair as freedom.
In his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, John Paul II wrote, “The temptation grows to have recourse to euthanasia, that is, to take control of death and bring it about before its time, ‘gently’ ending one’s own life or the life of others. In reality, what might seem logical and humane in this way of thinking is in fact senseless and inhumane.”
Now, as “Assisted Suicide Inc.” expands its reach to children, Catholics are called to act as defenders of life and hope. We must advocate for laws that protect the vulnerable, support families facing suffering, and proclaim the truth that every life, no matter how fragile, is a divine gift.
The Church’s mission is not to condemn those who suffer, but to remind the world that suffering has meaning when united with Christ’s Cross. It is in these moments that grace is most powerful, and where love can most deeply transform hearts.
Standing Against the Darkness
Michaels concludes that the growth of the euthanasia lobby “is the latest sign that [Satan] is getting impatient but it’s also an indication that his time is getting short.” His warning is not mere rhetoric—it is a spiritual wake-up call.
As Catholics, we must reject the false compassion that equates death with mercy. Our faith compels us to stand for life at every stage, to protect children from the culture of death, and to witness to the world that hope, not despair, is the final word.
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