Madam, - According to your report on the assisted suicide of an Irishman arranged by the Swiss-based group Dignitas (The Irish Times, March 30th), assisted suicide is not illegal in Switzerland provided there is no personal motive or gain for those providing the assistance.
It is a matter of time before the Irish courts will be faced with a decision to adjudicate on a request for permission for a person to take his or her own life. They will be further asked to exempt from prosecution a person who helps to end that life. The increased control over biological life due to improvement in medical treatment makes this situation inevitable. Ireland was the last state in Western Europe to decriminalise suicide - in 1993. The Act of the Oireachtas introduced at that time expressly criminalised aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring the suicide of another.
Apart from the serious moral and ethical principals involved, there are serious societal reasons for disallowing euthanasia and assisted suicide.
There is the fear of a "slippery slope", whereby if euthanasia becomes acceptable under any circumstances, the boundaries of what is considered lawful killing would be stretched even wider. This has happened elsewhere. There has been a blurring between voluntary and involuntary euthanasia. In the Netherlands there are cases of ending the life of patients with a mental handicap and with dementia. The "slippery slope" leads towards involuntary euthanasia for social reasons. Is it possible that the elderly (especially those who are elderly and rich) would become dispensable?
The hospice movement enables people, regardless of their illness, to live life to the end with dignity and with efficient pain control. The debate must centre on ensuring that those who are terminally ill have as good a quality of life and pain control as possible.
The acid test of our society is how it protects the life of its most vulnerable citizens - the very young, the very old, the chronically ill, those with severe disability, etc. As a nation we must never in any way compromise this. - Yours, etc.,
DAN NEVILLE TD, President, Irish Association of Suicidology, Dáil Éireann, Dublin 2.