Dr. Andrea Mulligan:

I agree with that. As a lawyer, I almost never say a question is simple, and I wrote in my opening statement that there was a simple question here. Members have the power to legislate for this or not, and there is no doubt about that. With the greatest respect for Dr. Casey, who I know well, I disagree with his position on this. It is simple.

On the Deputy’s other questions, it is correct there is no right to die by suicide. It is simply decriminalised. There is no right to do it but, equally, it is not unlawful to do it.

The Deputy asked about who else he should talk to. I reassure him that he started in the right place. He has to start with the Constitution. You have to talk about the Constitution and what it permits you to do. That is the starting point. After the constitutional questions, there are legal questions that arise that are not constitutional questions. The Deputy needs to think about what might be called medical law questions. For example, if you regulate assisted dying, how do you do it? Who are the people within the boundaries of who is allowed to seek that? What are the safeguards to put in place? Will you allow people to access it based just on, say, terminal illness diagnosis or the pain a person has suffered? Those are all legal questions that are underpinned by policy judgments. I assure the Deputy that the constitutional question is simple but there are many legal questions that are complicated. Looking at the way other countries regulate this, there are big differences in how they do it. I am sure those are differences the committee will come to as it goes through this process. The decision as to whether to legalise is just one decision. There are hugely complicated decisions beyond that. There are many more legal questions to be answered after the questions being looked at today.