Irish Examiner View: Deliberations on assisted dying will need compassion and wisdom

The right to decide when to give up an unequal fight against mortality is an idea whose time has come, and much will be debated in the coming months and years.

Vicky Phelan during the launch of Independent TD Gino Kenny's Dying with Dignity Bill 2020. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

The special Dáil committee being convened to examine the sensitive issue of assisted dying will have its work cut out to find a formula which addresses all the complex issues which bear upon this subject.

But meet that challenge they must, as the road to legislation is certain to be arduous, and probably long, with passionate views exchanged before there can exist a statutory right to assist a person to end their life, and a statutory right to receive such assistance. 

The nine TDs and five senators selected to weigh the arguments will be aware that politicians of all hues have been slow to embrace this cause in the past and that there is more in the debate to generate division than unity. During a cycle where the coalition Government must already tackle several topics with the potential to rupture its support, it would be no surprise to see pragmatic party leaders kicking for touch in 2023 and 2024.

Ahead of Christmas, in an interview with the Irish Examiner before he stood aside as taoiseach, Micheál Martin provided a flavour of what we might expect when he spoke of his “concerns” about attempting to draft new laws which would be without precedent in the history of the Republic.

“I would just be nervous that through any legislation that’s passed — and I’m open to persuasion on this — but that you would create an indirect pressure on older people in particular, people who are coming to the end of their lives, and all sorts of pressures can happen,” said Mr Martin.

So there would have to be very, very strong safeguards.” 

Some readers may have watched the bleak and heartrending drama, Mayflies, which explored these contemporary dilemmas on BBC One over the festive period.

It told the tale of an ex-teacher in his 40s, terminally ill from cancer with four months to live, who browbeats his best friend into arranging a one-way visit to Switzerland so he can undergo what he regards as a more dignified death rather than a prolonged period of chemotherapy. 

Anyone who has lost a loved one from a progressive illness will be familiar with, and fully understand, the turmoil of emotions and contradictions presented. In short, the protagonist of Mayflies regarded the decision as his to make, and that is an increasingly common view.

The late Vicky Phelan, who supported a previous bill, said: “For those people who are opposed to assisted dying, I would ask them to put yourselves in my shoes and imagine what it is like to be me for even one minute and how frightening it is to know that I will most likely die in pain. All I am asking is to be allowed to go gently.”

'Dying with dignity' is a term which can be appropriated for multiple situations. This weekend we have reported on instances where people have passed, alone and forgotten, for months and even years. 

That is one representation of the phrase which is particularly poignant in a country where the population is growing ever more aged. But the right to decide when to give up an unequal fight against mortality is an idea whose time has come, and we will hear much more about it as 2023 advances.

We hope that wisdom, compassion, and insight will bless the work of our political representatives charged with carrying the dialogue forward.