Dr. Annie McKeown O'Donovan:

The Senator asked how we should go about maintaining such limits. A limit we may all agree on, although I say that tentatively, is that the person must be an adult. In the case of people under the age of 18, we have to re-examine our conceptions of consent and the capacity to consent, so that would require a different study. A requirement to be a permanent citizen or resident of Ireland will mean we could be sure that a history of the person's healthcare has been well documented in settings and that the request that must be rational and enduring can also be verified. A requirement for the patient to be capable of administering the medication to himself or herself will make sure it is an instance of assisted dying as opposed to euthanasia. This will also help us maintain the limit of who will be able to avail of such care.

It also helps us to maintain the limit of who will be able to avail of such care. The requirement that the patient be suffering intolerably from an irremediable progressive chronic or terminal illness such that they are imminently dying involves a very narrow window. Of course, it is highly contentious because people live beyond such prognoses and die before them. As such, maintaining that limit is somewhat easier because it is such a narrow window.