Assisted Suicide committee public hearings begin

14th June 2023

The Constitution guarantees that the State safeguard the right to life of every citizen and that all citizens shall be held equal before the law, the special Oireachtas committee considering assisted suicide was told yesterday. The committee may pave the way towards allowed assisted suicide for the terminally ill. Countries such as Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands which have gone down this road have quickly expanded the grounds for the procedure.

Rachel Woods, an assistant secretary in the Department of Justice, was addressing the first meeting of the committee on Tuesday.

She said the courts have held that articles 40.1 and 40.3, together, “commit the State to valuing equally the life of all persons”.

“The European Convention on Human Rights provides that everyone’s right to life shall be protected by law. The obligation to safeguard the right to life is why, in the absence of any legal framework to allow for it, the state has, and must have, laws to protect life,” she said.

“The offence of assisting suicide . . . stems from the time when suicide and attempted suicide were criminal offences at common law in Ireland. This meant that any person who was an accessory to a suicide or an attempted suicide could also be tried as if they were a principal offender. “

“While suicide has been decriminalised, the offence of assisting suicide was retained and put on statutory footing. The offence has a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment on conviction on indictment.