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

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This committee discusses dying, including suicide. Support information can be found on the committee's web page.

We warmly welcome Professor Nancy Preston, professor of supportive and palliative care at the University of Lancaster, Professor Roderick MacLeod, health professor of palliative care at the Dunedin School of Medicine, Professor Ben White, professor of end-of-life law and regulation at the Australian Centre for Health Law Research, Dr. Frank Beck Lassen, member of the Danish Council of Ethics, and Professor Merete Nordentoft, member of the Danish Council of Ethics and professor of psychiatry at the University of Copenhagen. We are very grateful to them for attending and sharing their knowledge with the committee. We are also very grateful that Professor MacLeod and Professor White can join us at a time that may not be convenient for them.

The format of the meeting is that members will ask questions after all the witnesses have given their opening statements. A member can ask a question of an individual or address a question to witnesses more generally. I ask that the witnesses keep their opening statements to under five minutes. As they can imagine, we have to keep this meeting to order.

I invite Professor Preston to give her opening statement.