The Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission (IHREC) has said it believes it is possible for legislators to make laws for assisted dying that protect the rights of people with disabilities.
Chief commissioner Sinéad Gibney told the first meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying that the commission is, however, not recommending a change in the law to allow assisted suicide at this point in time.
Ms Gibney outlined a range of safeguards, including that disability would not be a ground for someone seeking an assisted death, but said while the commission was offering advice to legislators, it was up to the Oireachtas committee whether to recommend a change in the law.
Ms Gibney made her remarks in an exchange with independent Senator Rónán Mullen, who questioned whether the commission’s view that it was possible to legislate for assisted dying was not in fact a recommendation in itself.
“I am not ruling out that we might recommend the introduction of such legislation, Senator, but I am trying to explain that as a commission we operate on what we can do and across the very broad range of issues that we have, this is as far as we have gone on this particular one,” Ms Gibney said, adding that the commission was exercising its legislative observation function at this time.
Ms Gibney also told the committee that offering the choice of assisted dying should not be done without offering a suite of alternatives. These included the “positive obligation to protect the right to life; free and informed consent and protections from duress; the right to health and palliative care; and the right to participate in decision making”.
Assistant principal officer in the Department of Justice Rachel Woods referred to the case of Marie Fleming, who had late-stage multiple sclerosis and took a case to the Supreme Court in 2013 seeking to assert her right to assisted suicide.
Ms Woods noted the Supreme Court, while acknowledging the very distressing situation of the appellant, had found there was no constitutional right to die or to arrange for the ending of one’s life at a time of one’s choosing. But Ms Woods said “the court clarified that its judgment did not prohibit the Oireachtas from legislating for assisted suicide, assuming appropriate safeguards could be introduced”.
Ms Woods said there has been just one case where the State sought to prosecute a person for assisting in a suicide, and that prosecution had not been successful.
Ms Woods also said that, while it was a criminal offence to assist a suicide, “it would be very hard to say” that a person sitting beside someone on an aeroplane to another jurisdiction where suicide was permitted would be committing a crime. She said a prosecution for assisting in a suicide would very much depend on the circumstances of the case.
Patrick Costello TD said the Supreme Court judgment had invited the legislators to address assisted dying and it had taken 10 years for the Oireachtas to set up the committee. “The Oireachtas has been very slow to pick up its challenge,” Mr Costello said.
Gino Kenny TD, who brought forward a Bill on assisted dying in 2020, said in jurisdictions where assisted dying with appropriate safeguards is in place, there was no evidence to show anyone was coerced into making a decision to end their life. “It is just not there, show where it is,” Mr Kenny said.
