The Royal Society of Canada has appointed a new international commission to examine “End-of-life decision making” in Canada. As Wesley Smith notes, at least four of the six members are actively supportive of euthanasia and/or doctor-assisted suicide: Udo Schuklenk, a pro-euthanasia philosophy professor from Queen’s University and Ontario Research Chair in Bioethics; Johannes van Delden, a euthanasia researcher from the Medical Council of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences; Jocelyn Downie, Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy at Dalhousie University and author of a pro-euthanasia book entitled Dying Justice; Sheila McLean, International Bar Association Chair of Law and Ethics in Medicine at Glasgow University and author of The Case for Assisted Suicide. As Smith says, “The bias isn’t even subtle.” The final report is expected in 2011 but its conclusions seem pre-ordained.
