TRAGIC: 'Love You Forever' children's book author seeks assisted suicide

A beloved children's author is saying he wishes to die by assisted suicide and was approved for Canada's Medical Aid in Dying (MAiD) following his dementia diagnosis. The news comes during Suicide Awareness Month, which is dedicated to preventing people from attempting suicide.

Key Takeaways:

• "Love You Forever" children's book author Robert Munsch was approved for MAiD in 2021 after a dementia diagnosis despite having no terminal illness.

• Munsch overcame the loss of two children, alcohol and drug addiction, and suicidal ideation. But now that he has an illness, suddenly his life is seen by him and others as no longer worth living.

• Suicide is tragic, whether it is carried out by the young and able or the sick and elderly. Munsch needs unconditional love (which is portrayed in his beloved book), not death.

The Details:

Robert Munsch, who has published 85 books including the bestselling children's book, "Love You Forever," announced this month that he was approved for assisted suicide in Canada in 2021, after he was diagnosed with dementia.

He is not terminally ill — but a person does not have to be terminally ill to be approved for assisted suicide in Canada.

In an interview with The New York Times, Munsch, 80, joked that the application for death consisted of "Hello Doc - come kill me!" and "How much time do I have? Fifteen seconds!"

He explained that he wants to die by assisted suicide because he watched one of his brothers die of Lou Gehrig's disease. "They kept him alive through all these interventions," he said. "I thought: Let him die."

Now, as he faces dementia, Munsch says he will have to pick a time to die before he loses the ability to consent — a guessing game. He claims he will know when the right time comes for him to die: "[W]hen I start having real trouble talking and communicating. Then I'll know."

If he waits too long to decide to die, he believes his wife will be "stuck with me being a lump."

Worrying that your family will be "stuck" with you is one of the reasons people opt for assisted death.

It is heartbreaking to hear him speak of himself in this manner, considering the losses he has faced and the challenges he has overcome in his life.

The Backstory:

For the Public Discourse, Amanda Achtman spoke about the two babies Munsch and his wife lost at birth. First, a son, Sam, in 1979, and then a year later, a daughter named Gilly. They were the inspiration behind "Love You Forever." The couple went on to adopt three children and they now also have grandchildren.

Munsch's life was marked by heavy alcohol use following his children's deaths, along with drug use, and struggles with bipolar disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder, which went undiagnosed for years.

After he began speaking about wanting to kill himself in the 1980s, his wife insisted he see a psychiatrist. He began taking Prozac and lithium, which helped, and he began writing and publishing more stories. He also resumed touring schools to read to children — who frequently made appearances as characters in his future stories.

Achtman reports that in 2004, Munsch began drinking again; in 2008, he suffered a stroke; in 2010, he joined Narcotics Anonymous because of a cocaine addiction. It was in 2021 that he announced he had dementia.

"I can't drive, I can't ride a bicycle, I can't write," he told the CBC at the time. "So it's really whittling away on who I thought I was."

Why It Matters:

The announcement that he wanted to die by assisted suicide wasn't met with pushback as it should have been.

Scholastic Canada simply said, "His stories will live on for generations. We love you forever. As proud publishers of Robert Munsch's beloved books, we are grateful for all the stories he's shared, including his own."

But Achtman asks, "Will You Love Me Forever?" She looks back at the book as not only a story about a mother's love and care for her child, but a child's love and care for his mother. She writes:

Love You Forever begins with a mother rocking her newborn as she sings: “I’ll love you forever / I’ll like you for always / As long as I’m living / my baby you’ll be.”  

As the child grows, he causes his mother all manner of frustrations. But no matter what he does or how big he gets, she always goes into his room at night, picks him up, and rocks him, singing the same lullaby.

Eventually, the mother grows old and sick and calls her son to visit her. She is so sick that she is unable to sing the lullaby that has been the lifelong expression of her love. And so her son sings it to her tenderly, revising the last lines to say, “As long as I’m living my Mommy you’ll be.” 

It's a prime example of the unconditional love that exists — or should exist — in families, and is one of the reasons, writes Achtman, that many of Munsch's fans are "shocked" that he wants a doctor to end his life.

She noticed that, in stark opposition to the support he received to overcome his addictions and mental health struggles, and his efforts to overcome challenges and face significant loss, what is being talked about right now is what he cannot do.

"He can no longer ride a bike, drive a car, and, particularly cruelly for an author, he can no longer read. Like the mother in his classic story, he himself has become old and sick. But, unlike her, he now is tempted to seek state-sponsored suicide," wrote Achtman. "To schedule his death at the hands of a physician would contradict the message of unconditional love that he shared all those years ago, a message that resonated with hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of children and parents. But it would also contradict the support and understanding with which, thankfully, he was met throughout his life."

When he had suicidal thoughts, his wife brought him to a psychiatrist, and when he struggled with addiction, he received help from Narcotics and Alcoholics Anonymous.

"But now that he is elderly and asking for euthanasia, what is on offer? Why, only now, should there not be any antidote?" she asks.

The Bottom Line:

Writing stories was a large part of Munsch's life, and without that, he understandably struggles to grasp his value. But his value is not based on his ability to write; it's based on the fact that he is a human being.

"Love You Forever" was a memorial for Sam and Gilly, who "broke open his heart to that radical Love You Forever kind of love," said Achtman. "These two children who never took a breath in this life have had an incalculably positive impact on the world by inspiring Munsch to write his book and encouraging readers to love one another, despite failures and weaknesses, through every season of life."

More than anything, Munsch needs unconditional love right now and to be told he matters, even in the face of health struggles. Suicide is tragic, whether it is carried out by the young and able or the sick and elderly.

Suicide Awareness Month should be aimed at saving all lives from self-inflicted death, not just those deemed "healthy."