This fall, the Canadian government approved Robert Munsch — the author of beloved children’s books, who is suffering from dementia and Parkinson’s disease — for physician-assisted suicide. A growing number of Canadians, more than 15,000 in 2023, now seek to end their lives in this sterile manner.
Munsch’s decision is particularly jarring. His most popular book, Love You Forever, tells the story of a mother who steals into her infant son’s room to hold him while he sleeps, a habit she maintains throughout her son’s adult life. The story concludes with the heart-wrenching image of the son cradling his elderly mother as she reaches the end of her life. In the years before Munsch wrote the story, he and his wife had two stillborn babies, which led him to compose the book’s refrain: “I’ll love you forever, / I’ll like you for always, / As long as I’m living / my baby you’ll be.”
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