Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

One size does not fit all. Whatever laws we make, we should not try to interfere with nature or natural law. We did not determine when or how we got here. No law should be made in the land that would decide at what point we exit it.

I will give a few examples. All of you have similar ones. About ten years ago, there was a lovely lady and the story was bad. She was going to die in the next week or so and Jackie Healy-Rae received a request to get the hedges cut up to her door. She lived seven more years after that. She lived to see her daughter get married and other important events in her life. She had a great quality of life. She did not appear to be sick at all, although at that time she was not supposed to last more than a week or ten days. She lived more than seven years. Then we hear about people who got the all clear yesterday or last week whose names appear in the death notices and we wonder what happened. We cannot supersede natural law or the law of nature.

We fought against abortion. When a baby is conceived, it has a right to come into the world. People have a right to decide for themselves in the same way, when they want to live. As I said earlier, our attitude changes as we get sicker. We hope we will get better and that this is not the time we will depart the world. No law should interfere with or pre-empt nature. Some other force - I call it God - decides when we come and go and we should not try to change that.

One other thing has to be considered. If a law is brought in and a person is sick, will family members have a role to play? While most families love their parents and want them to last to the bitter end, there are a few bad eggs in every pack that would want to hasten their departure. I worry about that. I do not want this law brought in. I am worried about it. My focus is to try to ensure everyone stays alive as long as they can, to assist them while they are alive and not to assist them to go by bringing forward this Bill. I apologise to Deputy Gino Kenny. That is my position.