Legally Speaking: Disrupting Death with Jocelyn Downie

“We have to support people in making the decisions they want to make. So decisions have to be free, they have to be informed, and they must be made by capable individuals. And so we need to be careful not to set up protection of the vulnerable as oppositional to autonomy. I think they're complementary. And so we need to be careful not to set up protection of the vulnerable as oppositional to autonomy. I think they're complementary. We respect autonomy. If people have decision-making capacity, we respect that. We also look to ensure that they're making a fully informed and free decision, and we protect them from external forces, but we don't protect them from themselves.” In this month’s episode, Kathy and Keri-Lyn have the esteemed honour of sitting down with Jocelyn Downie SJD, FRSC, FCAHS, to discuss current and evolving legalities regarding MAiD care in Canada. Dr. Jocelyn Downie is Professor Emeritus in the Faculties of Law and Medicine at Dalhousie University. She is the author of Dying Justice: A Case for Decriminalizing Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide in Canada and a member of the Royal Society of Canada Expert Panel on end-of-life decision-making. Jocelyn is on the plaintiff's legal team in Carter v. Canada, O'Neill v. British Columbia, and Brosseau v. Canada and the Attorney General. She is a member of the provincial/territorial expert advisory group on physician-assisted dying, the Canadian Council of Academics expert panel on MAID, and the Model Practice Standard Task Group. Jocelyn is also a fellow of both the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and was named a member of the Order of Canada, in part for recognition of her work advocating for high-quality end-of-life care in Canada. Music for Disrupting Death was created by the ever-lovely Sarah McInnis. Sarah is a music therapist, a songwriter, a multi-instrumentalist and End-of-Life Doula. In 2021, Sarah began The Legacy Song Project, writing original songs for folks at the end-of-life, and for folks who have lost loved ones. To learn more about Sarah, visit her website https://sarahmcinnis.com. This episode of Disrupting Death was produced by Keri-Lyn Durant.