Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise; I was at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Education, Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science prior to coming here. I thank the three witnesses for the opportunity to read their opening statements.

While I absolutely agree with Dr. Finegan that every human life is of equal intrinsic worth and while also agreeing with what has been said about trying to ensure that all supports, such as hospice care and so on, are available to those who need them, we are nevertheless tasked with a real examination of what we feel about the possibility of Ireland looking at assisted dying at the end of this process. Engaging with people of different views and looking at examples from other countries are very important to our learning process.

Following on from that, we heard very grim evidence from Canada, the Netherlands and Belgium at our last meeting last week. While I understand that the three witnesses are coming at this from a different base, do they feel that any country or jurisdiction has introduced assisted dying in a way that is compassionate and understanding while being as limited as possible to ensure we do not arrive at that slippery slope?

Notwithstanding what Dr. Finegan and Dr. Yuill have said, are there any circumstances whatsoever in which they feel assisted dying could or should be allowed?

Dr. McKeown O'Donovan spoke about assisted dying being morally acceptable within limited criteria and about maintaining those limits. Will she elaborate on the limits she believes should and could be set?