Letter to the Editor: Slippery slope of safeguards in assisted dying bill
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Reading Daniel McConnell (Irish Examiner 5-9-20) regarding assisted suicide, it was interesting to see mention of concepts like 'restrictive', 'cooling-off period', 'limited circumstances', and 'appropriate safeguards' as forming part of a forthcoming Dáil bill on the matter. Yet these were also central in recent years to the introduction here of abortion, and have now either disappeared or are under serious threat through the endeavours of their former advocates.
Constitutional and legislative changes of two years ago led to a liberal abortion regime, involving mandatory face-to-face medical consultations and a besieged minimum three-day cooling-off period. Yet the previous lack of medical consultation, along with the threat to women's lives through unsupervised use of abortion pills and which constituted a major part of the campaign for repeal of the Eighth Amendment, have suddenly been deemed safe and acceptable through the new tele-medicine introduced as a 'temporary measure' in our new world of Covid-19.
In July of this year, the stories of two women who died, along with the experiences of a number of others who attended emergency departments following the use of abortion pills at home, came to light in Britain's Appeal Court. This is the land where over 200,000 abortions are now performed annually, following its introduction there in limited circumstances over 50 years ago. Given such likely unintended effects on women and children, I hope Mr McConnell and Deputy Kenny will understand my concerns around 'appropriate safeguards' in cases of assisted suicide.
