Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 7 November 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying

Protecting Autonomy and Assessing Decision-making Capacity: Discussion

Dr. Anne Doherty:

I do not see them as separate issues. As part of my everyday job, I assess people who want to die. For some it may be due to mental illness. In an emergency department, people who are self-harming come in. For some of them it will be due to mental illness, but it is quite a small percentage. For many people it is the wider network and things that are going on in their lives. It can be related to addictions or what we call-----