Voices raised in the Dáil against assisted suicide ahead of TDs vote next week

    

The Dáil could vote to approve a report recommending assisted suicide be legalised in certain circumstances next week, with Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin confirming that party members will have a free vote on the proposed legislation. 

Martin told the Dáil that he had decided “it will be a vote of conscience for every individual of the Fianna Fáil party” ahead of a vote next Wednesday.

However, his remarks come as cross-party opposition to proposals to allow assisted suicide in Irish law was voiced in the Dáil.

Mr Martin confirmed on Thursday that while he had “very serious reservations” about the proposed legislation, party members would receive a free vote on the issue.

“In the Fianna Fáil Party, for close to a decade now, we have had a free vote on issues to do with life or an issue of conscience. That will remain the position in respect of this proposed legislation,” he said.

“Even though I do not agree with such legislation and have very serious reservations about it, nonetheless, it will be a vote of conscience for each individual member of our party. I cannot speak for other parties in the Government,” the Tánaiste said. 

The Final Report of the Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying was debated in the Dáil on Thursday. The controversial report recommends allowing people to avail of assisted suicide under certain conditions, including registered intent and medical certification of an “undurable condition.”

During the debate, the Dáil heard concerns regarding safeguards, with Deputy Éamon Ó Cuív of Fianna Fáil saying that he had “serious reservations about the road that we are going on.” Deputy Ó Cuív took issue with the views of palliative care doctors, nurses and specialists being “dismissed as irrelevant,” and said the issue deserved a “wide debate.”

‘NO SUCH THING AS LIMITING ACCESS’

“I accept that this is a difficult issue but I believe there's no such thing once you open the door as limiting access, and we've seen in all jurisdictions where it’s been introduced it's grown and grown and grown,” the TD said. 

“And often what happens in a situation like this is that the proponents in the very beginning propose something very, very limited and it then gets widened and widened. As somebody who, is not, according to Wikipedia, not quite the age of the esteemed chair, but who is in the older age bracket, I’d have to say I’d be very concerned about such legislation. And I do think the older you get, the more you face the inevitability that you die,” Ó Cuív added.

“I think that there is a danger of pressure being put on people, moral pressure  over time as this would expand, and I have to say that I have serious reservations.

 
"I do believe it deserves a wide debate and I don’t go along with the argument that the view of palliative care doctors and specialists and nurses can be just dismissed as being irrelevant. Science has advanced.

"I believe that what the Minister said in terms of palliative care and the State is of huge importance here, and that it’s absolutely vital for the State if we’re taking a really caring attitude, that everyone would have access to a very high quality of palliative care. 

‘Most people cling dearly to life’

“Let’s be honest about it, most people cling on dearly to life, even when they know they’re terminally ill. Most people go to extraordinary lengths to extend their life even though they're suffering quite a bit because it seems to be built into our DNA.

"So I do have serious reservations about the road we're going on, looking around the world at other jurisdictions."

Fianna Fáil’s John Lahart, who was a member of the Joint Committee on Assisted Dying, said he would not be supporting any motions next week, saying that there “is an awful lot more teasing out to be done.”

“The public needs to be involved in a very real way,” he said, adding that he felt the issues which had been discussed over the nine-month period “probably need to be discussed even more.”

“How do we know the person who is making the decision is of sound mind when he or she is making that decision or that he or she is not being influenced unduly by anybody or is not under pressure?” Mr Lahart asked.

“We received international evidence supporting that notion from different jurisdictions. How I saw the report and the process was that it was the first time a conversation had been started. A huge number of witnesses appeared before the committee and gave their best in terms of information, knowledge and experience, many openly contradicting each other with factual evidence whereby if one position was stated, another position was then stated.

“People out there have emailed some of us who think we are going to introduce a law next Wednesday and want us to either support or oppose it. That is not happening and that needs to be made very clear. I would support a referendum if it came to it but I think we are a long way away from that. Much more conversation is needed on the topic.”

Other TDs who voiced strong opposition to assisted suicide proposals on Thursday included Peadar Toibin, Bernard Durkan, and Carol Nolan.

Peadar Tóibín told the debate that he was “disappointed” that the committee “ignored much of the scientific professional expert advice.”

Assisted suicide goes against the advice of the majority of consultants in palliative care. No group works with greater compassion or greater experience and with greater knowledge than those who are working in palliative care. Their association opposes moves to introduce assisted suicide,” he said.

“The Association for Palliative Care Medicine in Britain has opposed previous efforts to introduce assisted suicide. Disability rights groups in Britain have opposed changes to the law introducing assisted suicide stating that it would provide an illusionary choice if disabled people were not offered the proper support. 

“The British Medical Association has stated that what we need is improvements in palliative care to allow for people to die with dignity. I met the Irish Palliative Medicine Consultants Association. Its consideration around assisted suicide is motivated by the fear that people, when they are told that they have a terminal illness or uncontrollable pain, will at that point choose assisted suicide but modern medicine has great opportunity for people to be able to control pain and to control fear as well.”

Deputy Carol Nolan told the House that the adoption of the recommendations contained in the report “would represent the crossing of an ethical and legislative Rubicon that is almost too terrifying to even contemplate if adopted.”

The Laois-Offaly TD said that passing such recommendations into law would open a Pandora’s box where the likelihood of “grave injustices” being visited upon society’s most vulnerable would “move from grim possibility to absolute

     

She said that the recommendation made by the committee to proceed with assisted dying legislation was contrary to the “overwhelming concerns of palliative Care Experts and hospice providers” – adding that this was “breathtaking in its arrogance, apparent indifference and willful cruelty given the clear and unambiguous International experience.”

The TD told the debate that there “can be no excuses from members” who would insist they were operating in good faith, or that they were “hoping for the best,” because we know what the outcome of permissive law in this [area] will achieve.”

Deputy Nolan said that such legislation would lead to “untimely, unfair and cruel” premature deaths in cases where “care and compassion could have been offered.”

“We must reject this report,” she said,  characterising the recommendations as a “monstrous dereliction of care.”

“I’m sure members will, in time, come to see it as one of the single worst decisions they have ever taken,” Deputy Nolan said, referring to those in the Committee who voted in favour of recommending a change to the law.

“This Dáil must reject this Report. It must not allow what is essentially a monstrous dereliction of care to become embedded in our understanding of medicine and our treatment of the vulnerable. Once this line is crossed, I am sure that members will in time come to see it, as one of the single worst decisions they have ever taken.”

'Dire Situation for those with Dementia'

Deputy Nolan quoted Jane Lazar of End-of-Life Ireland, who previously said: “We’re asking you as legislators, to honour a person who has a terminal or life limiting diagnosis. Because time alone, or ‘foreseeable death’ ought not be the sole basis for calculating eligibility criteria.”

“I ask Members to consider the dire situation this will create for those with dementia, reduced capacity, young children or those who are in poverty and cannot afford medical care which ought to be theirs by right. We have seen, in every single jurisdiction where so -called ‘cautious law’ in this area is introduced that it quickly expands to include the most wide ranging categories of people.”

“Why are we determined to replicate the moral and ethical horrors that legislation of this kind ushers in everywhere that it has been supported?” the Independent TD added. 

“Where is our sense of the sacredness of human life gone? What is the real agenda here? Why are we determined to simply dismiss the pleas of palliative care professionals and set ourselves up as Gods on the issue of life and death?” she asked.

“This Report must be rejected outright. It is an affront to every ethical and medical protection that exists for the vulnerable and the sick. It will be to our lasting shame if this Report is adopted.”

People before Profit’s Gino Kenny yesterday called on the whole government to grant a free vote to all TDs on the motion when it comes before the Dáil next Wednesday for a vote.

"Ultimately it will be up to the next Government to legislate in line with the committee’s recommendations," he said. 

However, the Tanaiste said that he could not speak for other political parties within the Government.

---

Maria Maynes

   

---

  

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

   

---