Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank our guests and experts and, if I may, I just want to tease out one or two things. All through this process we have been going through in recent weeks, I have been very struck by our need to take very seriously and respectfully on the one hand people's personal testimony and, on the other hand, to grapple with the big picture policy impacts of what we do and its impact on other people even if we do not get to hear their personal testimony. For example, on Oregon, one point I have been trying to bring out is that we have seen a growing number of people - up at 53% in the past year - who gave as an issue of concern that they were a burden. I was accused by an Australian doctor last week of cherry-picking. My response to this is, if the cherry is there, it is a rather poisonous cherry and we need to think about what caused it to grow.

Perhaps Professor O'Neill can help us with my next question. While I have great respect for people who tell their personal story, including people who want a change in the law, I also worry when I hear the phrases "unbearable suffering" or "horrendous suffering" being used as a kind of lever to push for a change in the law. Does that sometimes involve - it was suggested as much - those who are looking on projecting their fears onto people whose actual experience of dealing with fear and overcoming fear of pain or suffering can be much more complex and can evolve? For example, when people receive a cancer diagnosis, there is a higher risk of depression and suicidality in the early stages but it is something that can be addressed. I wonder if we are sometimes projecting our fears when we talk about horrendous or unbearable suffering in the abstract like that? Have we begun the process? Is it a performative utterance in the sense of whether we have begun the process of weakening people's ability to deal with the challenge by going on about it in that way, certainly by those of us who are not enduring it.

There is a second part to my question. In the light of what my friend and colleague Deputy Kenny was putting to the witnesses, and where the physical suffering experienced by people at end of life is enormously difficult, where does palliative sedation fit in? I am aware it does not address the demand for absolute autonomy but is it an important issue to be considered in the context of the management of pain and symptoms of pain as people discuss what is unbearable?