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

I thank the witnesses. I want to ask Professor Preston a couple of questions. She has quoted a lot of research and seems to have done a lot of research around this across the various jurisdictions. One of the things that is frequently presented to this committee is the idea that palliative care and assisted dying is an either-or, and that they are mutually exclusive instead of us being able to provide both. In Professor Preston's experience, from researching this over the years, is there a trade-off there? She talked about the interaction between the teams. I ask her to comment on her experience of that and that trade-off, and the question of whether they are mutually exclusive.

One of the other things that is spoken a lot about by some people at this committee is the idea of the slippery slope, which again Professor Preston addressed in some of her ethics research. I refer to the idea of the social impacts, the assumption that allowing this will undermine the very idea of life itself, or that it will create a perception that some lives are not worth living. Can Professor Preston talk to us about that in terms of her research? What research has been done around those wider social impacts, not just in terms of the process and models of assisted dying?

There has been a lot of discussion around reporting systems and the need for data. I ask Professor Preston to speak to the differences between and her experiences with reporting systems, including which is better and which provides greater transparency and oversight.

On the secrecy and suffering of families, Professor Nordentoft noted in her presentation that the most important feature is the model chosen in relation to assisted dying. I ask her to speak to us a bit more about what works best for families, based on her research.