Review urged of assisted suicide law

IRISH laws relating to assisted suicide must be reviewed to make provision for a small minority of people in such physical distress they wish to end their lives, a human rights medical expert has warned.

Dr Adam McAuley, senior lecturer in medical and international human rights law in UCD, said people behind closed doors were taking their lives for medical reasons, sometimes with the aid of medical practitioners.

He said Irish society needed a broad and mature discussion on the issue.

He said that whenever the debate starts in this country, the discussion goes down the route of talking about “slippery slope” scenarios whereby disabled people will be asked if they want to end their lives, something which has never happened in places where assisted suicide is permitted.

Dr McAuley said in jurisdictions where it was allowed, there were steps people had to go through to be approved for assisted suicide, and evidence showed that many who are approved end up not doing it.

“The reality is people want to live, but there are extreme cases where people have terminal illness and it should be an option for them to choose.

“We don’t have the right to dictate on this. It is a very individual choice and the most important decision anyone could make.”

Gardaí are investigating the circumstances surrounding the suicide of a woman who had previously sought to travel to Switzerland for assisted suicide.

Gardaí told the Irish Examiner the investigation into the death of Dublin woman Bernadette Forde, who took her life last June, was “ongoing”. The story made headlines after Ms Forde, who was in the final stage of multiple sclerosis, was forced to cancel a planned visit to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland after officers became aware of her plans.

A report in Britain yesterday said assisted suicide should be legal. In a major report to parliament, MPs were told that people with a terminal illness could be safely offered the choice to end their own lives.

Britain’s laws regarding assisted suicide are the same as Ireland’s. Last year, after a case taken to the European Court of Human Rights, Britain introduced guidelines recommending that those helping loved ones to die should not be prosecuted. Dr McCauley said that, as the laws here and Britain were the same, any considerations or challenges to British law could theoretically apply here.

The 400-page report follows a year of investigation by the commission.

Key points

A BRITISH report on assisted suicide was published yesterday.

Describing the current law on assisted dying as “inadequate and incoherent”, the Commission on Assisted Dying, outlined a framework that would allow only those diagnosed with less than a year to live to seek an assisted suicide, and then only if they met strict eligibility criteria.

These would include:

* Two independent doctors were satisfied with the diagnosis.

* The person was aware of all the social and medical help available.

* They were making the decision voluntarily and with no sense of being pressurised by others or feeling “a burden“.

* They were not acting under the influence of a mental illness, and were capable of taking the medication themselves, without help.

Assisted suicide is a criminal offence in Ireland, England and Wales, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.