Where does the value of human life come from? Does it come from common sense? The government? Natural law? As podcast host Spencer Klavan often points out, understanding where ideas such as human rights and human value come from is essential when addressing social issues in the culture war.

In his latest episode of “Young Heretics,” Klavan traces the origin of the idea that life has intrinsic value, and with value comes rights. If you believe the Declaration of Independence is correct, then you believe your rights come from God. God-given rights stem from Judeo-Christian values. In Genesis 1:27-28, after creating man, God declares that mankind is made in his image. And because humans are image bearers, God commands us to be fruitful and multiply (i.e., be life givers).

God also demands in Genesis 9:6, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.” This shows the depravity of taking a human life and depriving him of his right to live out his image bearing. This is where the idea of the sanctity of life comes from. But as we have found to our great distress, the Left wants to decide what value to put on humanity, all in the name of autonomy. This leads us to our neighbors to the north.

Canada, a nation that is incredibly left-leaning and progressive in its policies, has made it legal for people to commit medically assisted suicide if their quality of life is not what they deem sufficient. In essence, it’s providing a diabolical “solution” for poverty. According to The Spectator, here is how it came about:

In 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada reversed 22 years of its own jurisprudence by striking down the country’s ban on assisted suicide as unconstitutional, blithely dismissing fears that the ruling would ‘initiate a descent down a slippery slope into homicide’ against the vulnerable as founded on ‘anecdotal examples.’ … It only took five years for the proverbial slope to come into view, when the Canadian parliament enacted Bill C-7, a sweeping euthanasia law which repealed the ‘reasonably foreseeable’ requirement — and the requirement that the condition should be ‘terminal’. Now, as long as someone is suffering from an illness or disability which ‘cannot be relieved under conditions that you consider acceptable’, they can take advantage of what is now known euphemistically as ‘medical assistance in dying’ (MAID for short) for free. Soon enough, Canadians from across the country discovered that although they would otherwise prefer to live, they were too poor to improve their conditions to a degree which was acceptable.

In other words, outside sources like governmental entities are convincing the poor, ill, or disabled to kill themselves regardless of their own desire to live because they are convinced their life would get worse; it’s better just to die. This has eerie echos of Charles Dickens’s character Ebenezer Scrooge in reference to the poor of London: “If they would rather die, they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population.”

When the sanctity of life is only contextualized by the value that you or your government get out of it, encouraged and coerced suicide is the natural conclusion of that slippery slope. Death is a convenient way for a government to get rid of its poor who depend on them for all kinds of support.

This idea has also been voiced here in the States in a slightly different iteration. Abortion has been a debate here in the states for 50 years, and with the possible overturning of Roe v. Wade, the pro-abortion camp has aired its most “compelling” arguments. Since all of those arguments are ghastly, the Left’s latest tack is to argue for it from an economic angle.

In a recent interview with CNN, anchor Dana Bash brings up this very point with Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson. Bash said: “Arkansas already struggles to support vulnerable children. Nearly one in four children in Arkansas lives in poverty. … Do you really think that your state is prepared to protect and care for even more children if abortion does become illegal there?”

Sadly, Hutchinson’s answer was underwhelming. If he had simply pushed back on the heinous premise that just because a person is born into poverty he or she is better off dead, it would have exposed this straw man.

Whether it’s Canada allowing medically assisted suicide or our own leftist arguing that abortion is the solution to poverty, the common denominator is that the solution is dehumanization and destruction.

“For those who find me find life and receive favor from the Lord. But those who fail to find me harm themselves; all who hate me love death.” —Proverbs 8:35-36