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FIRST READING: Canada told mentally ill must be euthanized lest they kill themselves

The argument has been at the core of Canadian euthanasia policy since the beginning

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FIRST READING: Canada told mentally ill must be euthanized lest they kill themselves Back to video

A leading MAID advocate argued to parliamentarians last month that Canada must legalize assisted suicide for the mentally ill, lest those same patients commit suicide.

The statement was made at a March 24 parliamentary committee debating the legalization of MAID for Canadians whose “sole underlying medical condition is a mental illness.”

Jocelyn Downie, a leading MAID activist since 2004, warned that if the federal government keeps excluding mentally ill Canadians from accessing assisted suicide, the result will be more mentally ill Canadians dying by suicide.

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“What will happen, if there is an extension or an exclusion, is that people will die by suicide,” she said.

The argument is not a new one. In fact, it’s been at the core of the Canadian assisted suicide regime since the beginning.

Downie was directly involved in litigating Carter v. Canada, the 2015 Supreme Court decision which first struck down Criminal Code sanctions against doctor-assisted suicide.

The decision ruled that Canada’s ban on........

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