Mr. Finn Keyes:

Legally speaking, psychiatrists should be there to sign off. There was a case before the European Court of Human Rights, Haas v. Switzerland, where Mr. Haas sought to challenge the Swiss law on the basis that it imposed an undue burden on him accessing assisted dying because it required him to be assessed by a psychiatrist before he could access lethal injection.

The European Court of Human Rights said that was a proportionate interference with his right to privacy because it was a necessary state objective to provide safeguards. It said Article 2 of the convention, which is the right to life, requires contracting states, such as Ireland, to establish that they are capable of ensuring that a decision to end someone's life does indeed correspond to the free wish of the individual concerned. That would be very likely be the case in Article 40.3 of the Constitution as well. These safeguards are not just prudentially advisable but are also likely to be legally and constitutionally required.