New laws permitting assisted dying would be “an affront to a safe and protective society” and should be “strongly opposed,” Catholic Primate Archbishop Eamon Martin has said.
“Medical and healthcare professionals are also gravely concerned at an evolving political ideology which would interfere with their calling to ‘do no harm’ and which would legally erode the right to life at all stages,” he said.
The archbishop was speaking as a Bill to allow assisted dying was to be introduced at Westminster on Wednesday and prior to the Final Report of the Joint Committee on Assisted Dying being discussed in the Dáil on Thursday.
“For all those who cherish a culture of life across these islands, the introduction of laws to permit assisted suicide is an affront to a safe and protective society,” Dr Martin said.
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He urged “all people of goodwill” to contact politicians and “ask them to reject this law.”
He added that “as we expect that a general election will be held in Ireland shortly, I ask voters to contact their TDs and Senators to ascertain their commitment to protecting end of life care, and to seek inclusion in election manifestos for investment to enhance palliative care and hospice provision.”
In a report published last March, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying recommended the introduction of legislation allowing for assisted dying in restricted circumstances – limiting its application to those with six months to live in most instances, or 12 months where they are suffering from a neurodegenerative condition.
It recommended that an offence be created where someone can be found to have coerced another individual into assisted dying, and that doctors and healthcare workers involved in assisted dying be trained to identify coercion. Anyone who coerces a person into assisted dying should be guilty of a criminal offence, it said.
At Westminster on Wednesday, Labour MP Kim Leadbeater is to introduce a private members Bill to legalise assisted dying in England and Wales. It would allow terminally ill adults with a limited prognosis to have the option to end their life.
There would be strict eligibility criteria, including mental competence, assessment by two independent doctors and a likely requirement for drugs to be self-administered.
The Bill would not apply to Northern Ireland or Scotland. Assisted dying remains illegal in Northern Ireland where Sinn Féin and the SDLP have said would consider supporting a law allowing assisted dying for people with a terminal illness, while the DUP and Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) are strongly opposed.
In Scotland last March, a Bill to allow assisted dying for terminally-ill people was introduced. There, assisted dying is not a criminal offence, but assisting the death of another could leave a person open to a charge of murder or related offence.
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