BREAKING: Dáil set to vote on Oireachtas Report on Assisted Suicide

The Report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the contentious issue of assisted suicide is set to be voted on in the Dáil on Thursday, 17 October.

A vote of approval would mean that the recommendations of the Report are adopted as the basis for legislative and policy change in this area.

The Report made 38 recommendations, including that the Government introduces legislation allowing for ‘assisted dying’, in what it termed ‘certain restricted circumstances.’

The committee also recommended that people diagnosed with certain diseases, illnesses, or medical conditions should be eligible for ‘assisted dying’. Other recommendations include the view that eligibility for assisted dying should be limited to people aged 18 or over.

As Gript has previously reported the Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying’s reported decision to recommend legalising assisted suicide and euthanasia, was fiercely opposed by among others, Professor Desmond (Des) O’Neill, a lecturer, and Consultant Geriatrician at Tallaght Hospital in Dublin.

Prof O’Neil said that the “majority” of Irish medics are do not want it legalised. He also told RTE’s DriveTime programme that “most of the doctors” who “deal with death” on a daily basis see assisted suicide as something “that undermines care.”

Prof O’Neill argued that the practise “cannot be limited, cannot be regulated” – while describing the Oireachtas Committees reported move in favour of assisted suicide as “very disappointing” and “quite disturbing”.

And the top expert said the Committee’s decision didn’t make it “more acceptable that … we should kill people as part of our repertoire as doctors” instead of striving for better care.

He was speaking as reports broke that the Committee was to recommend the introduction of both assisted suicide and euthanasia after months of deliberation. The proposal would be that Irish law be changed to allow someone to legally end their life if they have between 6 and 12 months to live.

In a statement, Life Institute said that legalising assisted suicide would lead to the most vulnerable being made to feel they were a burden. “The actual experts, the palliative care medics, have repeatedly said that they are opposed to this measure, precisely because they know that pain and discomfort before and around death can be managed with good palliative care,” spokeswoman Sandra Parda said. “Why is the government ignoring the medical experts on this issue?”

She pointed to the legalisation on assisted suicide in Canada as “an example where things can go very wrong, very fast”.

“In 2022, 13,241 died by assisted suicide, accounting for 4.1% of all deaths in Canada in that year,” Ms Parda said. “That was a jump of 31.2% over 2021, and a truly shocking almost five-fold increase since 2017. Is that where Ireland is heading – is that where the government, who are ignoring the doctors are dragging us?”

In 2021, three UN human rights experts cautioned that an expansion to the Canadian law, which permitted people with chronic conditions to apply for assisted suicide, would create a “two-tiered system” and push people with disabilities towards suicide.

  

  

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Máirín de Barra 

   

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This article was first published on Gript and is printed here with permission

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