So Goes Canada, So Goes Japan ...

Yes, there is a culture of death and there is no way it can be good:

"Plan 75" by Japanese director and writer Chie Hayakawa is based on a very real problem.

Japan is the most rapidly-ageing industrial society, a trend that is causing huge economic and political problems as a dwindling number of younger people must support a growing army of the old.

Close to 30 percent of Japan's population is over 65, the majority women, and that rate is expected to continue rising in coming decades.

In the movie, anybody over 75 is encouraged to sign up for a deal with the government by which they receive a sum of money in return for agreeing to be euthanised. A collective funeral is thrown in for free.

Slick ad campaigns and calls from people with soothing voices are part of the effort to get people to sign up. Handsome advisors list the small pleasures candidates could afford with the money. "You'll be able to go to the restaurant," says one.

"On the face of it, the government's Plan 75 is full of goodwill and friendliness and pragmatism, but in truth it is both very cruel and shameful," Hayakawa told AFP in an interview.

"The ageing of the population is not a recent problem, I've always heard people discussing it," she said.

"When I was young, a long life was considered to be a good thing, people had respect for older people. That's no longer the case," the 45-year-old director added.

 

So it is in Canada. 

The film is thought-provoking fiction, to be sure, but society is not so far off that it would not kill off its most vulnerable.

We are already do it.

 

Also:

For Ohden, it’s not philosophical. While many left of center marching in the streets, or in front of justices’ homes, have made their views viscerally clear, and while those of Christian persuasion may be predisposed to be pro-lifers, she survived a saline abortion attempt in 1977, when her then 19-year-old mother was forced by her mom to get the procedure after an unexpected and unwanted pregnancy. For Ohden, it’s very, very personal.

But at 31 weeks, she was just too big a baby.

She survived.

A saline abortion involves “injecting a toxic salt solution into the amniotic fluid,” Ohden explained. “And the intent of that toxic saline solution was to poison and scald the child to death.”

“Then they would spend the rest of that time of the abortion procedure inducing labor, and then the deceased child should be delivered from the womb,” she added. “We actually know through medical records that I obtained in 2007 that I soaked in that toxic salt solution towards five days, longer than what was typical, because they struggled to induce my birth mother’s labor.

“And so they weren’t successful.”

 

Imagine the effort going into poisoning and scalding an infant.