Seanad debates

Wednesday, 9 December 2015

Assisted Decision-Making (Capacity) Bill 2013: Committee Stage

 

10:30 am

Photo of Marie Louise O'DonnellMarie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

We continue all the time to create fragile environments and we put older people into them which makes them even more fragile. It is done in the name of health and safety but in fact it is the closing down of their freedom. Some of them are so healthy and safe they are treated like babies and they are not allowed to think for themselves. In effect, their liberty is taken away from them, for example, because they broke their arm and there is nobody to make their dinner on a Saturday. I know the Minister has read the book by Atul Gawande, Being Mortal, and knows what we do to people when they get older. The model is outrageous. That is where politics should start - at the community level where people, if they want and can, stay in their towns and villages.

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