Mr. Michael Nugent:

Not even within the medical industry is there ethical consensus on this issue. Some doctors believe that the harm caused by assisted dying is worse than the alternative while others believe the opposite. The initial point made by Deputy Chambers in terms of focusing on safeguards is the key issue because we completely agree that those who want palliative care should have the best available. That is not in dispute.

As regards the ethical issue of people potentially being pressurised, even those opposed to assisted dying do not argue that we should ban people from refusing care and thus hastening their death on the basis that vulnerable people might be pressurised into so doing. The courts have indicated that the Oireachtas can come up with safeguards. We should not focus on palliative care, which we all agree should be available for everybody who wants it, nor models that are extremely vulnerable to abuse and which we do not support but, rather, the issue of appropriate safeguards.