Mr. Garret Ahern:

I will be as brief as I can. The changes that have taken place in this country over the past number of decades have done more good than harm for us as a society and country. I refer to allowing contraception for women and giving them control over their reproductive rights, and the referendums on divorce, marriage equality and, perhaps more controversially, abortion. Including the robust safeguards I referred to, such as excluding vulnerability, old age and disability and restricting this option only to terminal illness at the end of life, seems as robust a process as you can get. If a process were introduced with those safeguards in place, or with any other safeguards that may be suggested, it would prevent any slippery slope and would be of benefit to the many thousands of people who die in suffering and pain in this country each year.