'We can't manage all suffering', assisted dying critic says

The Oireachtas joint committee on assisted dying heard that the number of people availing of assisted dying in the Netherlands has quadrupled in 20 years, from just over 2,000 people in 2020 to almost 9,000 in 2022. Picture: PA

An expert in assisted dying says he fears that death is being increasingly viewed as a remedy against "all kinds of unbearable suffering".

Former supporter turned critic of the Netherlands’ right-to-die laws, Theo Boer, a professor of healthcare ethics at the Protestant Theological University in Groningen, told a Dáil committee on Tuesday that his country's euthanasia laws turned the whole landscape of dying, including their view of illness, suffering, ageing, and care-dependence upside down.