Dying with Dignity Bill 2020: Second Stage [Private Members] Dail Éireann — 2020-10-01 ============================================================ Bríd Smith (PBP), Dublin South-Central I agree with Deputy Fitzpatrick that our most vulnerable citizens have been treated despicably in the Covid period in nursing homes. He is right about that and this Bill does not even exist in law. The protection of vulnerability is not contained in the Bill's existence; it is dependent on the sort of society we have. It is dependent on whether we provide the resources that older people, sick people and sick children need or whether we have charity balls, fundraisers and coffee mornings for the palliative care that is required because that is done mainly by charities through the hospice instead of the State providing the care needed for those who are most vulnerable. The question of vulnerability is really a distraction by the Minister of State and Deputy Fitzpatrick because actually there is an argument to be made that if we legislate for assisted dying, we will protect people even more. In that circumstance, they can have frank and honest conversations with the medical profession, they can make decisions, there are time limits in place, the process is overseen by two medical persons who are qualified to do so and there is less vulnerability. I know a couple of people who collect their medicines. They do it so that some day if they want to pass away quietly and quickly rather than going through months and months of decreasing life quality, they will have the option to do so. For them, it is a dirty secret. It is a bit like how termination of pregnancy was once a dirty secret in this country. Talking about the most vulnerable is not where it is at and we have missed the point here and missed an opportunity to have the argument about it. I have a short time to speak but I want to make a couple of points. Euthanasia is not something that is carried out in abundance in countries that allow for assisted dying. That is absolutely false and we can prove it in a longer debate. Euthanasia or assisted dying is not done to people but with them and not all of the people concerned are old. Vicky Phelan is not old. The woman whose life story I read in The Irish Times , who went on hunger strike and ended up starving herself to death because nobody would give her assisted dying facilities, was a young woman. Friends of mine who I know are facing terrible trauma are young. People do not have to be old to be vulnerable and they do not have to be old to make what I consider to be a very courageous choice. Often that choice is made out of love for life and love for the lives of those being left behind. I ask Members to remember this when we are discussing the topic. I object to the idea that we should drag out the debate and the idea that a committee would not have enough time. I tabled a climate emergency Bill that is still not sorted out after two years. We have been talking back and forth about it for two years. The first Bill tabled on abortion was tabled by Clare Daly in 2013. We did not get legislation until 2019. The Government can take as long as it wants but it should not do so. Vicky Phelan and others are waiting and Deputy Gino Kenny is willing to pursue this. --- 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