A painting titled, "The Sick Child," by Edvard Munch from 1885. (CNS photo/CC by 4.0, Wikimedia Commons) The release by the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life of a new booklet on end-of-life issues ‘Small Lexicon on End of Life’ comes at a time when the final stages of life are subject to increasing scrutiny – both in Ireland and abroad. The booklet continues to offer a clear “no” to euthanasia and assisted suicide, it offers clarifications that can be useful for Catholics who attempt to present the Catholic position on end-of-life care in the interminable debates that are at play wherever protections of life are coming under attack for those at the final stages of life.
From October 2013 until March 2024, a Joint Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying met more than monthly and listened to a wide variety of submissions on Ireland’s approach to end-of-life care. A report, subsequent to the deliberations, was released on March 20 this year, which recommends that the Government introduces legislation allowing for assisted dying, in certain restricted circumstances as set out in the recommendations in this report.
The report was agreed by a majority of the committee members and contains 37 recommendations focussing on primarily on the practicalities of what the assisted suicide regime may look like. After the release of the report, three members of the committee who opposed the conclusions released a dissenting report, an unusual approach taken indicating how divisive the issue is.
The minority report was presented by the committee chair Michael Healy-Rae TD, Independent Senator Rónán Mullen and Fianna Fáil’s Robert Troy TD and focused on recommending that Government not introduce legislation for assisted suicide, arguing that the “case has not been established, whereas the case against any change is overwhelming”.
In Canada, a new report on assisted suicide has found that the practise has risen thirteen-fold since legalisation in 2016 and has become a “routine” practise. Entitled, ‘From Exceptional to Routine: The Rise of Euthanasia in Canada’ found that the average time between request and an “assisted death” being carried out is about 11 days.
The Irish Committee heard submissions on the practice of ‘Medical Assistance in Dying’ (MAiD) which outlined the rapid progress and evolution that has occurred in Canada and other jurisdictions. This made little impression on the committee members who retained their pre-consultation positions with the majority report presuming Irish ‘exceptionalism’ of being able to legislate to avoid the slippery slope that has manifest in other jurisdictions.
The report says Canada’s model is similar to that of Belgium and the Netherlands, in that it now allows assisted death for persons with non-terminal illnesses, which expands eligibility to those living with disabilities whose death is not reasonably foreseeable.
In Scotland, the Scottish Bishops’ Conference has warned a Scottish parliamentary committee on Health, Social Care and Sport that the introduction of euthanasia/assisted suicide/assisted dying will create “chilling” economic incentives that could result in assisted suicide becoming the preferred course of action over providing palliative care to the most vulnerable in society after Liam McArthur, a member of the Scottish Parliament, introduced the Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill earlier this year.
These are just some of the debates that are ongoing. Where assisted suicide or euthanasia is not allowed under the law, this protection is constantly under attack. In these jurisdictions, defenders of life in its final stages are constantly carrying out a rearguard action.
To paraphrase what the IRA said to the British security services after the Brighton bombing, euthanasia advocates only have to be lucky once, those who fight against assisted suicide will have to be lucky all the time.
It appears that this luck has run out in Ireland and the report by the Committee on Assisted Dying, despite bearing no resemblance to the committee hearings, will be used as a tool to introduce assisted dying in Ireland through parliamentary measures.
The vote of the committee itself provides an indication of how the political parties will approach legislation once it is brough to the two houses of the Oireachtas. The Irish Bishops’ Conference will need to be prepared to mount a defence of life yet again and to instruct the faithful on their responsibilities as citizens to engage and oppose any attempts by the Government to introduce euthanasia to Ireland.