An Irish palliative care specialist has told the High Court he supports the total ban on assisted suicide here and believes it would be “entirely radical” for doctors “to try and kill pain by killing patients”.

A specially convened, three-judge division of the High Court is to decide whether a 59-year-old woman, in the final stages of multiple sclerosis, has a constitutional right to an assisted suicide.

The Law Society has secured a High Court order allowing it to have more than €900,000 transferred from client accounts operated by fugitive solicitor Michael Lynn to the society's compensation fund.