Assisted suicide reflects a “failure of compassion on the part of society” the Catholic bishops have warned in their submission to the Oireachtas committee reviewing legislation that, if passed, would legalise euthanasia.

Good palliative care not assisted suicide “offers terminally-ill people the best possibility of achieving ‘a dignified and peaceful end of life’,” the Church leaders said in the document.

They insist that assisted suicide “is a failure to respond to the challenge of caring for terminally-ill patients as they approach the end of their lives”.

The bishops also pointed to the fact that the legislation as drafted would “coerce the consciences of objecting healthcare providers in order to facilitate something they know to be gravely immoral and utterly incompatible with their vocation to heal.

“This burdening of conscience is unnecessary, disproportionate and seriously unjust,” the submission added.