Dr. Aideen Hartney:

Our input is on the basis that if this were to be introduced in an Irish context - I am not indicating one way or the other on that - we should not have a situation where people with disabilities are not allowed to have access to an option that is available to the rest of the population because of paternalistic perceptions about capacity. This goes back to the earlier point, as well as points raised by Dr. McDonagh, about the realisation of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. It must not be the case that society itself leads to the loss of autonomy, or that it is such a cause of fear for some people that they wish to choose assisted dying. Society itself needs to think about how those barriers are removed through access to services and supports. It is a matter of what supports are necessary for independent living. That takes resources, but it is about moving away from a medical model, whereby decisions are made based on the basis of a perceived impairment, and into a rights-based model, whereby the choices that are made are supported, and they are the choices of the individual and are under control by them.