Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 12 December 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying

Examination of Potential Consequences - Protecting and Enhancing the Provision of Palliative Care: Discussion

Dr. Matthew Dor?:

I mean that people can refuse chemotherapy because, after much consideration, it would do more harm than good. That is us not prolonging life. That is them returning to what trajectory the cancer would naturally have followed. I am not saying we can predict the cancer trajectory, as the Senator has heard, because we cannot predict prognosis very well, but we are returning to the natural course of events had we not intervened. That is what I am saying.