Dr. Regina McQuillan:

Going back to the point on medical ethics, the World Medical Association is opposed to assisted suicides and euthanasia, as are many medical professional organisations around the world. They feel it is unethical to be involved in assisted suicide or euthanasia.

I do not remember the exact details but I understand the High Court looked at the Carter v. Canada case and commented that although the Canadian High Court thought it could put in safeguards, courts in the United Kingdom and Ireland looked at the same evidence and came to the conclusion that it would not be possible to do so. The issue of safeguards is very important.

Justice is another area of medical ethics of which doctors are very much aware. This is about fairness. Part of that fairness is to ensure one does not do things which would unintentionally harm people. Equitable access to resources is another part of justice in health care. We do not currently have equitable access to palliative care, disability services, psychiatric or psychological support services and my concern and that of many working in health care is that to move in the direction of euthanasia would be to move away from investment in the appropriate services. In Canada, the health care savings from assisted suicide have been published and it is very worrying to think that this is a money-saving exercise. We have changing demographics and an older population. Colm McCarthy made the point some time ago that we have a policy problem, not a demographic problem. We need to change the policies to recognise our population and how we are. We may have policy problems in respect of the older population but we also have resource and research problems in respect of providing the right type of support for people. This will not meet everybody's needs but we need to be prudent and aware of the risks to the vulnerable in society and of the opportunity cost and the things that would not be developed if assisted suicide and euthanasia were permitted.