Professor Deirdre Madden:

I am not sure what I can add to what Professor Donnelly has said except to say that obviously where there is a specific right of conscientious objection, which we have seen being discussed in other jurisdictions as well as our own in recent years, those rights tend to be exceptional and quite narrowly drawn. If it is the case, as Professor Donnelly said, that as a result of the deliberations of the Oireachtas, legislation is enacted which gives people a right to seek assistance in dying, then the State would also have to operationalise the implementation of that right by, for example, ensuring that a doctor who has a conscientious objection that he or she seeks to exert would be obliged to refer the patient to somebody else who may be willing to provide the necessary prescription. However, that depends on the way in which the legislation is drawn.