Mr. Tom Curran:

I do not think anybody can guarantee anything. We are human and no matter what we do we will use our own thought process to put something in place. The advantage we have here is that this issue has been ongoing around the world for quite some time. It has really become an issue because of medical science and advancements. People are living a lot longer and are likely to end up in the final period of their life with some disability, disease or illness. We can look at all of the other countries and certainly avoid the mistakes they have made. We make our own rules here in Ireland. As my mother used to put it, "Just because Johnny put his finger in the fire does not mean you have to". We do not have to do everything that everybody else does. We can learn from what they have done. We have this opportunity because we are coming at it from way behind. The opportunity is there to look at the jurisdictions where it has been introduced. If they have made mistakes and have had to correct them then we do not have to make those mistakes. We should be in a better position to get it right the first time but there is no guarantee. There will never be a guarantee that any law or Bill is perfect. It is impossible to give an assurance that it will never change.

With regard to people dying on their own terms, what I meant was people making a choice for themselves as to a particular point in their life meaning they do not want to have it.

That was the situation with Marie. That is what I meant by people dying on their own terms.