Jocelyn Downie

Jocelyn Downie is a professor in the Faculties of Law and Medicine at Dalhousie University. Downie was a member of the pro bono legal team in Carter v. Canada, a member of the Provincial-Territorial Expert Advisory Group on Physician-Assisted Dying and a member of the Royal Society of Canada Expert Panel on End of Life Decision-Making.

Articles by this author

Abortion pill: One step forward, two steps back

The good news is that Health Canada has approved Mifegymiso for sale in Canada. Mifegymiso is a combination of drugs that, taken together, cause what’s called a medical abortion. Medical abortion can be preferable to …

Bouquets and brickbats for the proposed assisted dying legislation

On April 14, 2016, Canada moved one step closer to establishing its system for legally permissible assisted dying. The federal government introduced Bill C-14, An Act to Amend the Criminal Code and to Make Amendments …

Has stopping eating and drinking become a path to assisted dying?

Ms. S. was a 56-year-old woman with advanced multiple sclerosis. In June 2016, when her suffering became intolerable and her state of decline was advanced as a result of her incurable medical condition, she asked …

Hasty change to assisted dying bill a serious error

When complex and controversial draft legislation is processed rapidly, significant potential implications of the bill – and any amendments made to it – can be missed. Unfortunately, this is precisely what happened with the federal …

Regulatory risk mismanagement and the abortion pill

Two developments at Health Canada recently came crashing together in an illuminating way: the adoption of Risk Management Plans in the drug approval process and the approval of Mifegymiso, commonly referred to as the abortion …