A change in law could spur a change in culture to induce people, especially the vulnerable and defenceless, to accept assisted suicide if Ireland were to legalise the practice.

That’s according to Bishop of Kilmore, Martin Hayes.

He was speaking after the Dáil voted to ‘note’ an Oireachtas committee’s report calling for an assisted suicide regime to be introduced.

“If assisted dying is legalised then the elderly, the sick and people with disabilities are vulnerable to cultural coercion, i.e., to messages of ‘you’re no longer useful or wanted, ….you are a burden on society’”, Bishop Hayes told the Irish Catholic.

He added that the Report “fails to provide adequate safeguards for the vulnerable, the elderly, the sick, those with disabilities. It could enable funding being prioritised for assisted dying above that for palliative care thus leading to a devaluation of palliative care”.