Gino Kenny (Dublin Mid West, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank all our witnesses. I will begin by saying that some of the language used here in the theses by Dr. Finegan and Dr. Yuill is deeply distasteful and very selective, to say the least. People should reflect on the language they are using in some of the critiques - I am thinking in particular of Dr. Yuill - because it does not stand up. If he is saying that in Canada somebody may avail of assisted dying because he or she is in a situation of homelessness, that is trivialising the whole debate and is deeply disrespectful to the issue. Again, I ask him to reflect on what he has said. We are conflating assisted dying with other societal issues, including that of deep inequality in society. It is not helpful to this debate. We are trying to have a civilised debate on something that is very complex and can be difficult regardless of what one's opinion on the situation is. I therefore ask people to reflect on their statements and so forth.

I read Dr. McKeown O'Donovan's thesis. It was extremely good. I hope we will see assisted dying available to those who want to avail of it in Ireland in the near future. That is very important. Public opinion points to the majority of people in Ireland supporting legislative change. It is has been borne out by a number of opinion polls. People are open to this debate and want to see legislative change.

The slippery slope argument is a bit of a red herring advanced by those opposed to assisted dying. It was suggested that if assisted dying were to be legislated for in this jurisdiction, it would lead to everybody wanting to avail of assisted dying. That is not the truth. It is not. If anybody wants to say different, I would like to hear it. The argument that anybody with an ailment wants to die is ridiculous. It is important to touch on that. Is there a framework that could be envisaged as working at the moment that could be a model for Ireland with regard to assisted dying?

Is there a framework that would fit into what the Irish public and legislators such as us could accept - we are the ones who will legislate for this - in terms of those who want to avail of assisted dying?