Speaking on RTE Radio 1 Thursday, Des O’Neill, Professor of Geriatric Medicine at Tallaght Hospital, said there are major studies that show the vast majority of people die in a dignified way, with appropriate care and support.
He told Sarah McInerney that people in the caring professions are becoming increasingly concerned by the “inappropriate and inaccurate simplifications” of those advocating for what they euphemistically term “death with dignity”.
He said that the introduction of euthanasia and assisted-suicide in places like the Netherlands really undercuts “positive, promoting, caring, supportive ethics”, and he cited the recent case of a patient suffering with dementia who had to be restrained while receiving a lethal injection.
Professor O’Neil was responding to former Junior Minister, John Halligan, whose 2015 euthanasia bill is being revived in the current Oireachtas by socialist TD, Gino Kenny.
