Professor William Binchy:

If I may, I will say one last thing that is relevant to what Mr. Copson said. Mr. Copson would argue that people should be entitled to take their own life, and I think the expression he used was that the quality of life is the most important.

In case there is concern that this is just a concern that is not grounded in fact, we can take the Oregon Death with Dignity Act, which is put forward here by a number of proponents of death with dignity proposals. They say that Act is fine. I refer members to the report in 2020 in which more than half the people who took their own life - 130 out of 245 - identified their being a burden on family, friends and caregivers as a reason, although not the only reason, they chose to take their life.