Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 17 October 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying

Healthcare Provision and Healthcare Professionals: Discussion

Photo of Rónán MullenRónán Mullen (Independent)
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This is a life-and-death issue. The proposed safeguards, in essence, are a five-day waiting period and, in fairness, a stated wish to exclude people with mental health conditions. I note that Dr. O'Shea's organisation is named after the Canadian model of medical assistance in dying, which is, to say the least of it, controversial in terms of how it has become a runaway train. It seems to me that Dr. O'Shea's model would not exclude the Canadian-type conditions whereby people go into nursing homes and relatives might potentially find out they have died because they requested medical assistance in dying without their relatives even being contacted. Is that a fair characterisation of what could happen?