In deeply disturbing remarks, euthanasia activist Jocelyn Downie urged Canada’s Parliamentary Committee to approve assisted death for people suffering solely from mental illness, arguing they may otherwise die by suicide.
The idea reframes psychological suffering as a justification for ending life rather than protecting it, raising alarm over where this policy direction is heading.
The logic being advanced draws chilling historical comparisons to Nazi-era eugenics, where the lives of the mentally ill and disabled were treated as expendable rather than worth saving.
Lifenews reports:
Tristan Hopper reported for the National Post on April 9 that Jocelyn Downie, a long-time euthanasia academic told Canada’s Parliamentary Committee on euthanasia, that is studying euthanasia for mental illness alone, that parliament must stick to the March 17, 2027 timeline and permit euthanasia based on mental illness alone. Downie threatened the committee by stating:
“What will happen, if there is an extension or an exclusion, is that people will die by suicide”
Downie is saying that the answer to suicidal ideation is suicide and people will die by suicide if they do not have access to euthanasia.
The threat that people who are denied euthanasia will die by suicide is a pressure tactic that is not true.
The Supreme Court of Canada accepted the suicide argument in Carter when it struck down Canada’s laws that protected people from being killed by euthanasia, but the Supreme Court was wrong.
If the premise that people will die by suicide if euthanasia is not available to them is correct then Canada’s suicide rate should have gone down after euthanasia became an option for people who are not terminally ill.
But Canada’s suicide rate has increased.
Hellbound and Down 