Anyone who coerces a person into assisted dying would be guilty of a criminal offence under legislation on the contentious topic recommended by a special Oireachtas committee.
The report of the committee, published on Wednesday, recommends the Government introduce legislation allowing for assisted dying in restricted circumstances – limiting its application to those with six months to live in most instances, or 12 months where they are suffering from a neurodegenerative condition.
It also recommends that within the legislation an offence be created where someone can be found to have coerced another individual into assisted dying, and that doctors and healthcare workers involved in assisted dying be trained to identify coercion.
The committee’s report has been marked by a political row over the failure of the chair, Michael Healy-Rae, to support its conclusions. He launched a minority report along with other dissenting members of the committee, Fianna Fáil TD Robert Troy and Senator Rónán Mullen, on Wednesday afternoon in a move that sparked fierce criticism from Fine Gael.
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The report also recommends that if someone fails to adhere to statutory requirements governing assisted dying, “he or she will have committed a criminal offence”.
The legislation should also include provisions such that medical professionals found to have acted outside regulations or attempted to coerce an individual will have committed an offence, the committee recommended, while mandatory reporting to the Garda of evidence or information around possible coercion should be put in place.
It argues when a person’s capacity to make a decision is in doubt, a functional test should be introduced as part of the assessment for eligibility. Doctors involved in determining eligibility must also have professional training in assessing capacity and “voluntariness”, according to the report.
If someone is initially successfully assessed for assisted dying but temporarily loses decision-making capacity, the committee argues that their eligibility should be suspended while they are incapacitated.
It also recommends a formal separation of palliative care and assisted dying which should “operate completely separately and independently of each other”, including in a budgetary sense, as well as that resources, funding and information about palliative care should be “substantially increased”.
A healthcare workers’ right to conscientious objection should be protected in law, although they will be obliged to refer a patient interested in assisted dying to a participating professional or oversight body.
In order for a person to be considered for assisted dying, two formal requests must be made with a set specified interval in between – with at least one of these recorded in writing, before two independent witnesses.
Family members or other parties such as carers or guardians will not be able to request assisted dying for another person.
The Government is seen as highly unlikely to act in the short term on the committee’s recommendation given the time constraints under which the Dáil is operating.
Mr Healy-Rae, Mr Mullen and Mr Troy’s own set of recommendations include that the existing ban on assisted dying should be maintained, and that no change be made to the Criminal Law Suicide Act 1993.
The TDs said the case for assisted dying had not been established, “whereas the case against any change is overwhelming”.
“There are no lives not worth living,” they said in their recommendations.
Janie Lazar, the chairwoman of End of Life Ireland, an organisation advocating for voluntary assisted dying, said the report’s publication was “an important first step”.
“We have consistently called for legislation with robust safeguards to address the awful situation facing some people with terminal and incurable conditions in this country, who want to end their lives at a time of their choosing.
“Our immediate concern is around any potential delay on this process. If vital next steps aren’t taken within the term of this Government, the work of the committee and its witnesses could go to waste. Given today’s report findings and research showing the level of support for assisted dying in Ireland, we urge the Government to listen to all of these people and act to put compassionate legislation in place.”
Prof Siobhán MacHale, a member of the human rights and ethics committee of the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland, which has about 1,300 psychiatrist members, said: “The Oireachtas Committee’s recommendation of the introduction of assisted suicide and euthanasia in Ireland undermines Irish society’s strong focus on suicide prevention policy.
“Any terminal diagnosis is by its nature deeply upsetting and can often lead to a patient experiencing a wish to die in the course of the associated shock and grief. The College believes that we can do better in providing compassionate care to those who are dying than to introduce assisted suicide and euthanasia in Ireland.”
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