Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their contributions. I have enormous respect for their views and their entitlement to hold them, and am sympathetic with an awful lot of what I have heard this evening. However, our history as a State and as legislators has been to espouse a just society. We need to legislate not even necessarily for what the majority thinks but for what is needed for a minority. Over the course of our history, we have legislated for divorce, marriage equality, fertility treatments, how we provide for fertility treatments and abortion. In this room, there are people who hold diverse views. In the list I have given, I will never need to avail of marriage equality because I am happily married to my husband for 22 years, but I believe that others have that right. Not all witnesses would agree with that and not all would even recognise my marriage because my husband was divorced. As legislators, we have to separate our faith and a faith-based perspective and consider the needs of the minority who would require us to care for them and give consideration to them.

I do not necessarily have a question but merely an observation. This is a necessary and important meeting because this is the end of life. I do not necessarily think there is a conflict between valuing the sanctity of life and, within that sanctity, valuing the right of a person who knows they will die to choose the manner, means and circumstances of that death. Therein lies a challenge. I may or may not ever choose this road but I am not sure that I can stand in the way of a person who feels they wish to. I feel my duty as a legislator is to ensure that those who do not want to choose it, while it is an option for others, are safeguarded in those perspective. I am not sure what there is to discuss but I am open to feedback and observation.