Mr. Michael Nugent:

I will let Mr. Curran go into the details of possible specific safeguards but I would like to preface that by saying that we respect the right and duty of the Oireachtas to legislate and to create the safeguards it believes appropriate. While the members do not have to agree with all our potential safeguards, however, we hope that the very minimum starting point here would be that rational, terminally ill people should have the right to assisted dying. Safeguards may then follow from this, with regard to abuse, for example. We have already decriminalised suicide but this has not led to a broad belief in society that suicide is a good idea or something to be encouraged. We are not insisting that our proposed safeguards be implemented and we are in fact specifically saying here that we do not agree with some of the more liberal regimes that might prove easier to abuse.

Our minimum is rational terminally ill people.