Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am always brief. Dr. Craven referred to good faith. It may be a lay term and it may be old-fashioned, but I have relied on it for all my life, as have many ordinary people. It is in good faith that we trust daily - when we take a bus to work, when we cycle or when we put our names on lists for operations.

I thank Dr. Fletcher for her answer. I raised my point because my understanding was that a brain dead person's life ended when the life support machine was turned off. There is a difference between this and the case of someone with Alzheimer's disease or dementia, for example, my mother. She lived, walked around, breathed, ate and was able to wash without needing a life support machine. My impression, regardless of whether it is right, is that the machine is the mother's womb. Does Dr. Fletcher understand what I mean? This is the lay person's vision of the situation. These hearings are about understanding the situation in lay terms. I do not have the ethics, surgical knowledge or so on, but I have a lay person's thoughts on the matter. When people attend my office, I must reply to them in lay terms.