John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I made a point about the idea of being a burden because it had been a theme today. The witnesses might not be aware that this is our second multiple-hour session today. I am particularly struck by the theme of burden. It is not that this is a subjective piece, but it seems to play a big part in people’s consideration. I would like to see the committee explore it a little more. The point was made by all three witnesses, and I have listened respectfully to that.

In regard to the Oregon issue, we had a Supreme Court case, the Fleming case, but the Oregon model does not seem to deal with this situation because Marie Fleming's particular issue was that she was not in a physical position to self-administer because of her disability. Oregon would not have allowed Marie Fleming to end her own life because physically she was not in a position to do so. The other issue relates to the regulatory piece Dr. Jeanne presented, whereby the Oregon health authority does not investigate whether patients met the Act’s criteria nor how their diagnosis, prognosis and treatment options were determined. I find that alarming because some kind of oversight would have to be implemented there although I would have trust in medics and physicians.

Out of respect to Dr. Komrad who makes an important point, I would like him to furnish the committee with some background material on this. It is an area we will have to probe a little more ourselves. It is an important point when he says there are no validated standards for capacity to consent to irreversible death. That is a piece that troubles me. How do we know a person has the capacity when he or she is making the decision? He is saying that there is no way of measuring this. I would like us to probe that more.