Senator Ronan Mullen Doctors working in end-of-life care believe the assisted suicide movement is hurting attempts to build a serious palliative care culture, Senator Ronan Mullen has said.
Speaking against the background of the publication of a Council of Europe report entitled ‘The Provision of Palliative Care in Europe’, for which Senator Mullen acted as rapporteur, Mr Mullen told The Irish Catholic that it is crucially important to avoid any confusion between discussions of palliative care and discussions about the ‘right to die’.
“Most people in the hospice movement are very against that,” he said, with many saying that at the very least the two discussions need to be kept separate.
“Others would say that talking about assisted suicide and euthanasia in that context actually inhibits the ability to spread a good palliative care culture because part of palliative care is about alleviating fear, and assisted suicide demands are often about an inability to cope with fear,” he said.