Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am aware of Dr. Mewett's view and I read a very interesting opinion piece he wrote about the law in Scotland. He spoke from his own experience, and some of what he had to say in that opinion piece was in his presentation today. I suppose it would be fair to describe Dr. Mewett as somebody who puts the emphasis down strongly on the person's choice. Autonomy comes up frequently in this debate. Does Dr. Mewett have any sense that autonomy is a social thing, and that the exercise of one person's autonomy might have implications for other people? I think what is coming across strongly from palliative care physicians here in Ireland, who are not necessarily coming from religious or other dogmatic views as some people might think, is that somehow the very fact that there is a changed legal attitude to the deaths of some people can cause a change of attitudes in others on other vulnerable people. It is still early days in Australia with assisted dying, but we have heard from people like Professor Theo Boer, who was originally very much on board with Dutch euthanasia law, concerned about the change and the drift in social attitudes. We have heard horror stories from Canada, where it is not just the middle class, the educated or the relatively well-resourced. We are conscious of the health-economic thing in the background and down the road, people being vulnerable. Can Dr. Mewett comment on that aspect of it? In other words, can he put himself in the mind of other palliative care specialists who worry about what this might trigger?