Professor William Binchy:

I will be brief. I think I have been too long with too many other answers. The argument is that if you accept the principle of assisted suicide or assisted death in circumstances of imminent death, it is logically impossible to resist arguments based on discrimination and equality to extending it further. We have speakers here who do not have the same position among themselves. It is a question of where they would draw the line. We look around the world and we see the trend over the past 20 years is expansionary. That is logical and entirely consistent with the step. Once you say it is okay and there should be a death in these circumstances, how can we deny it to people who are seven months away? How can we deny it to people who are in the situation I mentioned to Deputy Kenny, that is, a situation of gross personal pain but not related to medicine? Those are the same kinds of case. Those are the people you have to protect. They are unknown as yet, but they are the people who will become a burden and who will perceive themselves to be a burden on society and will come under pressure and indeed cultural pressure. You have had your time, it is time for you now to exit from the stage.