Future legislation must make a clear distinction between assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia, a report published yesterday in Britain has recommended.
A House of Lords committee examined a private bill seeking to legalise assistance with suicide and voluntary euthanasia for terminally ill people who are mentally competent and "suffering unbearably".
It called for the qualifying conditions to reflect the realities of clinical practice in the area of terminal illness.
Commenting on the report, however, a legal expert in the Republic suggested its conclusions represented a "minute differentiation" of the issue and questioned whether it was possible to legitimise voluntary euthanasia without at the same time facilitating assisted suicide - where death occurs with the overt help of a doctor it is called euthanasia.
When a doctor has either indirect or no involvement it is defined as assisted suicide. Last week The Irish Times reported on the case of a 37-year-old chronically disabled man living in Ireland who travelled to Switzerland last November. He availed of assisted suicide there with the help of the Swiss right-to-die group, DIGNITAS.
The peers, who heard from 140 witnesses in four countries and received in excess of 14,000 letters and e-mails, recommended their report be debated early in the next parliamentary session. They also asked that if a new bill is introduced along similar lines, a committee of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords should examine it.
"It is clear to us from the evidence we have received that the demand for assisted suicide or voluntary euthanasia is particularly strong among determined individuals whose suffering derives more from the fact of their terminal illness than for its symptoms and who are unlikely to be deflected from their wish to end their lives by more or better palliative care," the report states.
It suggests that any new bill seeking to legalise assisted suicide or voluntary euthanasia focus primarily on this group of people. Assisted suicide is legal in Switzerland. Euthanasia is legal in Belgium, Holland and the US State of Oregon. The peers said that the experience of other jurisdictions showed a strong link between the scope of euthanasia legislation and its take-up by terminally ill people.
In a criticism of the private bill put forward by Lord Joffe the peers said: "It is relatively silent about the procedures which a doctor must follow in giving effects to a patients request once the latter has passed the various tests required. Any further bill should therefore make clear the actions which it would authorise the doctor to perform."
Committee chairman Conservative former Lord Chancellor Lord Mackay of Clashfern said: "Ending or helping to end someone's life, albeit with their consent, is an awesome issue and opinion within the committee has been divided.
"We have explored the underlying ethical principles involved and the practical implications of any change in the law on intentional killing and assistance with suicide. And we have looked at the experience of other countries where legislation of this nature is in force," he added.