Lynn Ruane (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am thinking of the patients Dr. McQuillan spoke about who she sat with and who refused medication. That is already a right, in that people can withdraw their desire to have any sort of treatment or to eat or drink. Senator Mullen spoke about the moral pressure when things change. However, the end result there is that an intervention that goes against all the other principles people put forward on prolonging life like why does this person want to die and the suggestion that if we give them a certain amount of interventions or psycho social supports, they will not want to die. There are still people who will choose to die by the means currently available to them, namely, to refuse medicine, food or water. In those moments, does Dr. McQuillan not see the hypocrisy between those positions? I know one is passive and another active - I understand that and I do not need to go into it - but the end result is still the same, in that the person is choosing to die as they wish to die and they are very intent on that. In those moments, which I am sure is hard to watch, I think an alternative would be better than someone starving or dehydrating themselves to death or refusing all types of intervention. Surely assisted dying in that moment would be a more humane approach to someone who was intent on leaving the world.