Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of the witnesses for their contributions. In this first round I will probably speak mainly to Professor Huxtable. I read the paper he wrote, Splitting the Difference? Principled Compromise and Assisted Dying. It is matched by his submission, which states that arguments against assisted dying tend to rest on a number of claims. The claim among these that I will focus on is that life matters and life has intrinsic value. The paper states Mullock and Holm give a fair account of the main moral dimensions of assisted dying whereby pleas for self-determination and mercy confront appeals to the intrinsic value of human life. The intrinsic value of human life and the fact that life matters are somehow in opposition to assisted dying or confronting the arguments on the other side. I get a bit stuck when I think about life being intrinsically good in and of itself. There are schools of thought that would say that the ability to experience is what is intrinsically good about life rather than life in its physical sense of aliveness. If life gains its intrinsic value from the ability to experience, should we not then consider the case of someone who is experiencing intolerable pain or suffering? Many philosophers and thinkers taking a utilitarian view would say that pain has a negative intrinsic value. Plato says it is intrinsically bad.

Many schools of thought say pain and suffering is intrinsically bad. It replaces the person's ability to experience life, not just in the physical sense but to exist in the human experience as one desires in the context of pleasure being intrinsically good. Would it not be fair to say the arguments against assisted dying do not stand up as a confrontational opposition to assisted dying? I ask that because Professor Huxtable's paper was interesting in respect of seeking compromise. As legislators, we try to find a compromise and think that is necessarily based on safeguards, but it is not. It is really based on how we understand value and the intrinsic value of life. I ask Professor Huxtable to comment on that. Dr. Mills said he is not here as a philosopher but I am hoping Professor Huxtable is here in that capacity because I am getting a bit stuck on how the intrinsic value of human life is one that involves pain as an intrinsic value.