Emer Higgins (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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I thank the witnesses for coming before the committee to share this international perspective on a difficult topic. At the moment in Ireland it is particularly complex and it is great that the witnesses can share their expertise with us. I compliment Dr. Jeanne on his fact-driven statement, which I found particularly useful. The facts and statistics presented dispel some of the myths, and I appreciate that. Dr. Komrad spoke about lethal medications in his statement, and said they are not tracked once dispensed. They may sit openly and unused for years in people's homes without safeguards. I am shocked by that. I know that the law provides that the patient must ingest the medication themselves. Does that mean there is no oversight of that? I do not like the idea of medications lying around. What could we learn from that if we were to legislate for this in Ireland?

It is great to hear statistics from Dr. Jeanne that 92% of people who have gone down this route were enrolled in hospice care. I hope that is of some comfort to Dr. Komrad who spoke about how hospice care should be offered to people. It is great that 92% of people were already in that situation. The OHA does not have regulatory or enforceable responsibilities. It only has reporting requirements. If we were to legislate for this in Ireland, is this something we should provide for? How many complaints went to the medical board for further investigation? I have a further question for my curiosity. If 66% of people died from ingesting medication, that leads me to believe that more than 30%, almost one third, of people did not. What happened in that situation? That is about 1,500 people.