The small town of Terrasse-Vaudreuil in Quebec has made headlines with its recent resolution declaring trees as living beings with rights of their own. On June 9, the city council adopted a resolution stating that trees have the "right to life, to natural growth, to integrity, and to regeneration." While it's understandable to want to protect trees, this decision raises concerns about the priorities of the community.
Trees are indeed beneficial to neighborhoods, providing shade and improving air quality, but is the protection of trees a higher priority than the protection of unborn children? The truth is, human beings in the womb remain completely unprotected, despite being living, breathing individuals with their own unique DNA and genetic identity.
Quebec has one of the highest abortion rates in the country, with more than 22,000 abortions performed in 2024. Meanwhile, a small town in the province is making a public effort to protect trees, while unborn children remain exposed to abortion with no legal protection whatsoever.
Unborn children are not theoretical lives; they are living human beings with their own potential and future. They grow, develop, and mature from the earliest stages of life, and possess a beating heart, a unique genetic identity, and a real biological relationship with their mother.
The irony of this situation is stark: a community is recognizing the value of trees while unborn children, who possess an immeasurably higher form of life and therefore a far greater dignity, are left without protection. This highlights the profound moral confusion at work in our society.
A society that protects trees while permitting its youngest members to be destroyed by abortion has lost its moral bearings. If we refuse to protect children in the womb, we are cutting off our own future, and there will be no future generations to enjoy the trees if those generations are never allowed to be born.
The supporters of the Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Tree argue that trees are living beings and that life on Earth depends in part on their existence. However, human beings must come first when it comes to balancing claims, and the rights of human beings must come before tree rights.
We are stewards of creation, and trees certainly deserve care, but human beings deserve protection first, and the youngest human beings of all – children in the womb – deserve the right to live. It's time for Canada to get its priorities straight and recognize the humanity of an unborn child, just as we recognize the value of a tree.
