Professor William Binchy:

The Deputy asked the question as to what to do in a situation where a person wants to die. She added the proviso that there is intolerable pain and suffering but she did not, as it happens, mention that the person was in the process of dying and that death was inevitable. She talked about a close friend or family member for whom life is bleak and miserable. There are many of those people in the world. If the situation is outside the context that she mentioned, which is the pain and suffering context, and the person is just utterly depressed with life or unhappy with his or her situation, I think most people would seek to do the very best they could to support the person in terms of love, support and suggestions. What we would not do is countenance the person taking his or her own life. If it is outside the medical context, we would not countenance the taking of his or her life, or at least I do not think so. If someone said he or she was feeling suicidal, is at the end of the line and wants to take his or her own life, very few people would be disposed to provide assistance in those circumstances. Most people would not be so disposed. If we bring it into the medical context, the way that this process of changing the law has occurred, generally, is to take a case where a person is on the point of death, or will die within a very short period of time, within six months or something like that, where death is certain and the argument of futility is put at its strongest in a case like that.