Patrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank our witnesses. I will start with the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland. One of the statements is that in the view of the college is that we need to find a better way to substitute for deficiencies in end-of-life and psychosocial supports than offering assisted dying. The opening statement talked about where people are receiving suboptimal care and are not receiving all the supports they need. We hear loudly from many people that the support they need or want is medically-assisted dying. I agree with the sentiment that we need to improve the deficiencies in end-of-life care, but I do not see offering assisted dying as a way of papering over the cracks. Many people would see this as part of that intervention.

I want to dig into the bit where the witnesses said they believed it was not possible to clearly differentiate between suicidal patients and patients who request assisted dying. I am looking at the National Suicide Research Foundation's opening statement which said that the profile of individuals who die by means of assisted dying seems to be distinct from those who die by suicide. It said these are distinct groups. Surely we should be able to tell them apart. Is it not the case where there are patients who are clearly suicidal, and patients who request assisted dying, and there might be an area of overlap or confusion in the middle? Is that a more accurate way of describing the situation, rather than the statement the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland has made?