Proper debate on controversial issue is a matter of life and death

CONTRARY to popular belief, the right to die has been enshrined in Irish case law — but only for those who are physically incapable of voicing their desire to end their own lives.

This week’s recommendation of the UK’s Commission on Assisted Dying, that terminally ill adults should be allowed end their lives with the help of their doctor, has again raised the controversial issue of euthanasia. Having described the current UK law as “inadequate and incoherent”, the commission’s year-long review concluded by recommending that those with less than a year to live should be allowed end their lives as long as some stringent guidelines — including, any lethal medication must be self-administered and two independent doctors must be satisfied with the terminal diagnosis — are adhered to.

While the debate between opposing camps in this divisive debate has been freshly ignited by the UK report, incoherent and inadequate is also an apt description for Irish jurisprudence on euthanasia with courts here taking a rather dichotomous approach to this life-and-death issue.