The call was made at a session of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying from the perspective of religious, faith based and other philosophical groups.

Outlining their basic stance, the Bishops’ representatives said death is a natural part of the human condition.

“We do not propose the use of extraordinary or aggressive treatments to prolong life in a way which conflicts with reason, or with the dignity of the person.  Our focus is on how people might be helped to experience a good death.  We are opposed to the deliberate ending of human life, both for reasons of faith and for reasons connected with the defence of the common good”.

They said people across Ireland are already helped, ethically and legally, to approach death with dignity, within the interdisciplinary framework of good palliative care.  Assisted suicide, however, “is something very different and we believe that it would undermine the common good in several different ways”.