IMO Conference: A third of 15 doctors surveyed by The Irish Times said they had been asked by a patient to help end their lives.
Fifteen of the doctors attending the annual meeting of the Irish Medical Organisation in Killarney over the weekend were asked if, during their professional lifetime, a patient had ever requested euthanasia or information about assisted suicide. Five of those questioned said they had had such an approach.
Asked if they were aware of any patient from the Republic who had undergone an assisted suicide, apart from the 37-year- old with quadriplegia who travelled to Switzerland last November to end his life, all said they were not.
There was less agreement among the general practitioners and hospital consultants about the role they saw for the medical profession if assisted suicide was ever legalised in the State.
While 20 per cent had no opinion on the matter, almost a quarter said they felt the profession should have an input into the criteria under which an assisted suicide would be permitted. But the majority of doctors felt it was a societal matter rather than one for the medical profession.
In Switzerland, where assisted suicide is legal provided there is no personal gain for the person assisting the patient, doctors are not allowed to become involved in the final act.
Dignitas, the organisation that helped the chronically disabled man who had been a patient at Peamount Hospital in Co Dublin following a rail accident, said it involves a doctor in the assessment of a patient's readiness to avail of assisted suicide.
One doctor said: "I do not think doctors should be involved but if society wants it, that's okay".
Another doctor said: "During my time practising in Northern Ireland, Australia and the Republic, I have never come across a patient ever wishing to discuss the issue."
Another said: "The Pope's method of death will change the current trend towards prolonging life unnecessarily." Another commented: "Whether someone wants to die is a social issue and not a medical one. It only becomes a medical issue if it is not a rational decision."
Assisted suicide is illegal in the Republic under the 1993 Suicide Act. Helping a person procure a suicide is punishable by up to 14 years' imprisonment.
