An opposition heaIth spokesman, has warned that Ireland is on the slippery slope to euthanasia.According Fine Gael TD, Dan Neville it is only 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."
In 1993 suicide was decriminalised in Ireland. However it is a crime to aid or abet the suicide of someone else. A person found guilty of such an crime can be sent to prison for up to 14 years.
Currently the state is seeking the extradition of George Exoo from the US. Mr Exoo admitted he assisted in the suicide of Rosemary Toole-Gilhooley (49) at her Donnybrook home in 2002.
According to Mr Neville, cases like the Exoo case, will bring pressure to change the current legal situation.
"Apart from the serious moral and ethical principals involved, there are serious societal reasons for disallowing euthanasia. The main reason is the fear of developing 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.
He cited the example of Holland, which decriminalised euthanasia and assisted suicide in 2000 in circumstances where it is carried out by a physician and certain criteria of due care have been fulfilled.
There even children from 12 to 16 may be euthanised with the consent of their parents, and children of 16 and 17, in principal, make their own decision. Their parents must however be involved in this.
Mr Neville, who is president of the Irish Association of Suicidology, said that cases like the one involving Mrs Basscher and Dr Chabot confirmed that suffering need not be physical, and a person may not be terminally ill for euthanasia to be permissible.
In that case Mrs. Hilly Basscher, a physically fit, retired 50 year old social worker requested her psychiatrist, Dr. Chabot for assistance to die. She was divorced from a physically abusive husband and had had two sons both of whom died. After the death of her second son she decided she no longer wanted to go on living.
Her doctor found no evidence of mental or physical disorder. She simply wanted to die for life had no purpose without her sons. Dr. Chabot gave Mrs. Bosscher a drink containing a lethal dose of sleeping tablets and she drifted into death. The case was referred to the local court. Both the local court and the appeal court dismissed charges against Dr. Chabot.
As the matter was considered an important test case of euthanasia, it was referred to the Dutch Supreme Court. The court ruled that Dr. Chabot was guilty of unlawful assisted suicide on the grounds that none of the other doctors with whom he had consulted had personally seen or examined Mrs. Basscher.
However, the court accepted that he otherwise followed the necessary Dutch Royal Medical Association guidelines on euthanasia and assisted suicide and that Mrs. Bosscher had been competent, suffering unbearably, and had a voluntary and durable wish to die.
"I highlight this one of many hundred cases to illustrate the 'slippery slope' of considering assisting a person to end their life in any circumstances," said Mr Neville.
"There is a blurring between voluntary and involuntary euthanasia. Again in the Netherlands there are cases of ending life of patients with a mental handicap and with dementia. The 'slippery slope' is on the way to involuntary euthanasia for social reasons. It is possible that the elderly (especially those who are elderly and rich) become dispensable,” said Mr Neville, who added that the acid test for a society is how it protects the life and well being of its most vulnerable citizens.
Meanwhile a report on suicide to be published next week, states that suicide figures for the Republic are significantly higher than previously calculated – at around 600 per year and not 500 as was previously thought.
The findings come from Kevin Malone, professor of psychiatry at University College Dublin (UCD) and St Vincent's University Hospital, who examined data for the five-year period 2000-2004. He found there were 2,876 deaths by suicide. This equates to an average of 575 deaths from suicide each year.
"If we are really serious about understanding suicide in Ireland, we have to do all we can to know the magnitude of the problem," Prof Malone told The Irish Times.
"Other countries include 'undetermined deaths' in their suicide rates for research purposes, reflecting the sum of definite and probable suicide deaths, and so should we."
The UCD professor also examined the “clustering" phenomenon where a number of suicides occur close together in time and space beyond the rate that would be normally expected.
"Our preliminary evidence from the Suicide in Ireland Survey has identified the existence of multiple suicide clusters around the country in the past three years," said Prof Malone. "And young people are particularly vulnerable in the aftermath - days, weeks and months - of a young suicide death in their immediate locality and community."
The Dublin International Workshop on Youth Suicide, co- funded by the 3Ts (Turning The Tide of Suicide) charity, takes place in the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland next weekend.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce