Dying with Dignity Bill 2020: Second Stage [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2020-10-01
============================================================

Martin Kenny (SF), Sligo-Leitrim

I will share a few minutes with Deputy Shortall at the end.
The Dying with Dignity Bill clearly comes from a place of compassion. We all recognise this. There is no sinister agenda or malice behind it. There are, of course, moral and emotional minefields to be negotiated to arrive at a consensus between two ends of a spectrum of opinion. One is that the taking of life is always wrong and assisting in taking a life is even more wrong. The other opinion is that everyone has the right to do with his or her life what he or she wishes when it comes to ending his or her life.
Sinn Féin, in recognising this issue needs a detailed, deep and compassionate analysis by this House and by the Seanad, supports the passage of this Bill to Committee Stage. When it reaches Committee Stage, it should be extensively and comprehensively scrutinised with regard to the sensitivities of the issues and, as has become clearer since the Bill was published again recently, the lack of consensus among citizens regarding the right of any individual to end their life or not, no matter what the consequences.
We will have to seek evidence, testimony and advice from the full spectrum of opinion and expertise on the matter and the nation must feel the pre-legislative scrutiny of this Bill was accessible and reasonable. Within this scrutiny, there must be thorough, intelligent, informed and compassionate exploration of the logistics of any assistance to be offered to those who might choose to take that ultimate step of ending their own lives. There must be an examination of the consequences and further consequences, the hard and painful cases and the suffering that may be relieved or, indeed, inflicted through all of this and it must all be viewed with clarity.
The nub of them matter is that no one is an island. For every person who might decide to end his or her life, for reasons that seem logical and reasonable and justified to him or herself, there are lovers, spouses, children, close family members, religious advisers, support groups and friends who are, through that relationship, involved in the action of ending the human life as well. Indeed, we as a society, and those of us elected to represent that society as lawmakers, must take on the consideration and passage or not of this Bill as the huge responsibility it is.
There are many people who, when one talks to them, believe it is permissible for people with a terminal diagnosis to die by choice. Some may even call that a right. From there comes the argument that if a person has such a right, then he or she has the right to enlist the assistance of others. That is what is legally difficult. It is also counter-intuitive, is sad and painful and is hard for us to agree. I have not, however, met a single person who has watched a loved one die slowly and in pain who did not wish, at some stage, he or she was able to help that loved one to die sooner. That is a long way from the fear that the choice of assisted dying would become preferable to families of vulnerable older people in comparison to the payment for their care in homes for many years. That brings in the issue of hospices and palliative care and the need for more and better services in that regard.
If we agree that the right to die is to be vindicated, do we then automatically acquire a responsibility to assist someone to take his or her own life? It is never black and white. We know this. Like every other moral issue, there are times we feel one way and occasions when we feel another. The rationality of the decision is a major issue and, of course, there must be some strong safeguards against assisting in the death of those who cannot make a rational decision on the matter. There are questions that must be asked of everyone contemplating this hard option and anyone contemplating assisting such people, especially the terminally ill. Is it an optional that I want to consider? Should I hold out for the chance of cure? How should I time my death? What weight should I give to the welfare interests of others?
It is an interesting point that despite their experience in the treatment of terminally ill patients, in opinion polls medical doctors have shown themselves to be more opposed to assisted dying than the public. Perhaps, that is because they will be the people who will have to be of assistance in the vindication of any right to die.
There are those who find their lives damaged beyond recognition by accident or by illness and feel it is not worth living a miserable life waiting for death by natural causes. We have, of course, also seen a huge plague of suicide in our society. We have seen too many young people die like this. We have seen vulnerable groups particularly affected by this and have all called out for more mental health services, more emergency interventions, more awareness campaigns and every possible measure to prevent people dying in this manner.
Then, however, we also saw the intelligent, rational, loving arguments put forward by Marie Fleming and her husband Tom. We are now listening to the intelligent, rational and compassionate statements of Vicky Phelan and we are wavering between those two ends of that spectrum. That should show us there is no black and white. There is no absolute right or wrong and if we are going to legislate, or not, on assisted dying then we had better do so in the calmest, most informed and most respectful way possible.
This Bill should proceed to Committee Stage and we must do our best possible job of scrutinising it and making informed determinations. This Oireachtas has the responsibility to deal with this matter. While it might be easier to avoid it, the right thing to do is work together to build consensus and maximum agreement on this difficult issue. With that in mind, I urge members to allow this to go to the next Stage.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2020-10-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:38+00:00
Sitting date: 2020-10-01