(LifeSiteNews) — The Christian Reformed Church of North America (CRCNA) condemned Canada’s euthanasia regime that has claimed the lives of thousands of Canadians.

During a June 16 synod meeting, the CRCNA unanimously passed motions affirming the dignity of human life and advocating for compassionate palliative care while condemning Canada’s ever-expanding euthanasia regime.

“The discussion on MAiD, or Medically Assisted Suicide as we rightfully called it, was one of the most difficult topics at Synod. The body was unanimous in its condemnation,” CRCNA delegate Jeremy Williamson told LifeSiteNews.

“It is rapidly progressing to a state in which the government of Canada is preferring that citizens kill themself than pay for their treatment, and shows a complete lack of compassion and empathy for the value of human life,” he continued.

“It shows a callous disregard for the government’s sole purpose of existence, that is the protection and safety of its own people,” Williamson declared. “It is not inconceivable that in the very near future, the Government of Canada will determine what groups of people have a right to live, and what groups will be slated for extermination for the ‘good’ of their malevolent society.”

The synod passed a series of recommendations affirming “the value of human life as a gift from God, intrinsic and enduring, recognizing that, as Christians, we are to honor and care for all lives — our own and others — especially in suffering and despair.”

Assisted Suicide Task Force further recommended that the “synod remind CRC members, churches, and classes, in accordance with prior synodical reflections, that the appropriate Christian response to suffering, disability, and/or dying people (and their families) is pastoral, including compassionate palliative care instead of acting to cause death.”

Additionally, the RCNA synod voted to “deplore the legalization and practice of medically assisted suicide as well as the efforts to expand it to include minors, and those suffering solely from psychological disabilities.”

Assisted suicide was legalized by the Liberal government of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2016.

Since then, the euthanasia regime has expanded from killing “terminally ill” patients to allowing the chronically ill to qualify for assisted suicide after the passage of Bill C-7.

Liberals also planned to expand assisted suicide to mentally ill Canadians but decided to delay the expansion until 2027 after backlash from Canadians and prominent doctors.

In January 2024, provincial health ministers went a step further than seeking a delay in the provision, asking for the measure to be “indefinitely” postponed.

Similarly, several Canadian psychiatrists warned that the country is “not ready” for the coming expansion of euthanasia to those who are mentally ill. They said that further liberalizing the practice is not something that “society should be doing” as it could lead to deaths under a “false pretence.”

Also alarming, as reported by LifeSiteNews in May, documents show that Health Canada has been funding a university research project concerning “youth views” on euthanasia that included a brief discussion as to whether children with severe autism would be allowed to qualify for death under the nation’s assisted suicide program.

Government data has also found that over 40% of people euthanized in Ontario lived in the poorest parts of the province.

The most recent reports show that “MAID” is the sixth highest cause of death in Canada. However, it was not listed as such in Statistics Canada’s top 10 leading causes of death from 2019 to 2022. Asked why it was left off the list, the agency explained that it records the illnesses that led Canadians to choose to end their lives via euthanasia, not the actual cause of death, as the primary cause of death.

According to Health Canada, 13,241 Canadians died by assisted suicide lethal injections in 2022. This accounts for 4.1 percent of all deaths in the country for that year, a 31.2 percent increase from 2021.