Assisted Suicide / Euthanasia

'Society must promote hope’: Mother of Donal Walsh addresses Oireachtas Committee

The mother of beloved Irish teenager Donal Walsh, who inspired the nation in the final months of his cancer battle before his death in 2013, has urged the the Committee looking at Assisted Suicide not to recommend the legalisation of the practise in Ireland.

Elma Walsh, speaking before the Committee today, said that assisted suicide is a “statement of no hope,” when society “must promote hope.”

She said that palliative care should not be underestimated in Ireland, pointing out that her son, in the final months of his life before his death aged 16, wanted to encourage people to value life. She recalled how Donal’s own message about embracing hope and living life prompted a fall in suicides in the Kerry area, signalling the importance of this message.

Ten years on from his death, Donal’s legacy has lived on through the Donal Walsh #LiveLife Foundation, which assists in the provision of age-appropriate teenage facilities and hospice care centres, with his family setting up the foundation primarily in order to promote Donal’s anti-suicide ‘Live Life’ message.

His mother Elma and father Fionnbar continue to visit schools and other venues across Ireland where asked to help promote Donal’s message. The Kerry teenager in his writings and appearance on RTE Brendan O’Connor’s The Saturday Night Show, expressed how he was tired of seeing young people end their lives while he was fighting each day for his:

Addressing the Committee as a speaker on Tuesday, Mrs Walsh stressed the importance of palliative care, highlighting its role in her own son’s battle with illness.

Donal had been diagnosed with bone cancer in his tibia aged 12, for which he received nine months of chemotherapy and underwent an operation for a prosthetic knee. The cancer, however, returned two years later in his lung, meaning the teenager underwent more surgery and subsequently had half of his lung removed, and had more chemotherapy.

“Palliative care allowed Donal to spread a message of hope and reduce suicides," she said. "Telling young people that their life itself is valuable, no matter how uphill it may seem at the time, as Donal said, “Everybody has their own Mountain to Climb”.

“Legalising assisted dying at the same time is to bring about a clash in Society. Life is whole from Beginning to Natural End. It’s valuable no matter our age or circumstances. We can all help fight against suicide by turning our back on assisted suicide. Our lives are for sharing to the end,” Mrs Walsh said.

Donal’s mother said that while “having your son die from cancer as a 16-year-old is the exception in life,” from the time Donal was diagnosed terminal, he “lived with dying with the help of his palliative care team.”

She told the Dail Committee: “The team not only took Donal into their care, but they also looked after us as a family and individually, they took our worries, fears & general wellbeing into consideration.”

Detailing Donal brave fight with cancer, she went on:

“In October 2012 he was told he had weeks, maybe months to live and that maybe we should have an early Christmas, then in February 2013 he was told he might not see Easter, yet in April 2013 following local publicity he was asked onto RTE & had a conversation with Brendan O Connor. In addition to the RTE coverage, that conversation has had hundreds of thousands of hits on social media even to this very day, 10 years later.”

She said her son “spoke about valuing life and appreciating every minute.”

“He contrasted his circumstances of wanting to get every second out of life with those who were taking their lives by suicide and the devastation that caused in families. That conversation has saved many lives. It led to our family setting up the Donal Walsh #Livelife Foundation in order to promote his anti-suicide #Livelife message.”

Mrs Walsh told the Committee that she had two different but related messages. The first was with regard to palliative care, while the second dealt with the issue of suicide.

“Palliative Care should not be underestimated in this country,” she said. “This type of care is focused on providing relief from the symptoms and stress of a terminal illness. The goal is to improve quality of life for both the patient & the family. This is what it did for Donal and ourselves, in Donal’s final and most important challenge.”

‘WE ARE ALL DYING – EVERY DAY’

“It doesn’t hasten death,” she explained, adding:

“Palliative care is a way of easing people into their final most important struggle. A fundamental principle of palliative care is (in the words of the World Health Organisation) “neither to hasten nor to postpone death”. Palliative care is about care at the end of life, not about ending life, as I’m sure the experts are reminding you.

“As an organisation, the Foundation has been involved in campaigning for greater resources to be allocated to Palliative Care. In 2015/2016 we donated €80,000 to Kerry Hospice & €40,000 to Milford Hospice, although we don’t as for money, people generously contribute to our mission which enabled the foundation to make these & other donations to other Hospices and Mental Health Care.”

She said that rejecting palliative care “or turning it into something that it isn’t, by liking it with euthanasia,” would be to the detriment of living.

“Palliative care provides opportunities for making memories and enjoying what time we have left with family while knowing our time is short. And really when you think about it, in some ways they are the lucky ones, because we are all dying – every day.”

Mrs Walsh continued: “For me any introduction of assisted suicide or euthanasia would undermine the trust placed in doctors when it comes to end-of-life care, they would be seen as death givers.”

She also spoke of the experience of other countries where the practise is legal, including in Canada and the Netherlands.

She said the fact lethal drugs have been signed off to end the lives of patients with autism, tinnitus and mental health issues is “surely not what we want for some of the more vulnerable population” of this country.

“I can honestly say with the help of palliative care Donal died with dignity and got to complete most of the things he wanted to do,” Mrs Walsh said.

“I fear what this committee could set in motion, because if it removes the present legal requirement that Doctors do what they can to save lives, the value of life will be significantly reduced.

“Can anyone here guarantee that elderly people won’t be subtly or overtly pressured into taking life ending pills, in a situation where they are living in a family house and the child or grandchild is looking for a house? We already know that coercion happens around handing over monies and going into nursing homes.

"All the elderly often want to do is live in their own home & community, that they have earned & lived in all their lives, but they are made to feel guilty by taking up a space a younger family may need.”

‘ASSISTED SUICIDE IS A STATEMENT OF NO-HOPE’

Secondly, focusing on suicide, Mrs Walsh recalled how her teenage son spent his final months encouraging people to value life. She said that four months after Donal died, the late Kerry Coroner Terence Casey told the family that Donal’s appeal to young people about suicide had “considerably reduced suicides in Kerry.”

She recalled how Mr Casey had said in a media report from the Journal in 2013 that “Donal speaking out in the way he did has made a hugh difference, I usually deal with 18 suicides a year, about 1 & half a month on average. But since Donal spoke out about suicide, I have no suicides from March to August.”

Mrs Walsh also highlighted how over a year after her son’s death to cancer, local paper Tralee Today reported the Coroner as saying that since Donal had appeared on Radio Kerry’s Kerry Today programme, back in March 2013, where he received a local hero award, there had been four reported suicides in the South Kerry area. This represented a drop of 24 from 28 suicides reported in the 12 months prior to that interview with the terminally ill teenager.

“Society must promote Hope, assisted suicide is a statement of No-Hope,” she said.

“Palliative care allowed Donal to spread a message of hope and reduce suicides. Telling young people that their life itself is valuable, no matter how uphill it may seem at the time, as Donal said, “Everybody has their own Mountain to Climb”. Legalising assisted dying at the same time is to bring about a clash in Society.

She said that “Life is whole from beginning to natural end,” adding that “It’s valuable no matter our age or circumstances.”

“We can all help fight against suicide by turning our back on assisted suicide. Our lives are for sharing to the end,” Mrs Walsh said.

If Donal had taken the euthanasia drug either of the two times, he was told he would not live for long more, suicides in Ireland would not have dropped. This is a potential that would have been lost. All people with long term illness have potential to change & improve the lives of family and friends, as long as they live."

“That is a message of Hope,” she concluded, adding that she hoped the family’s lived experience will be taken into consideration.