Independent Alliance Minister John Halligan is lobbying colleagues in the Dail to legislate for euthanasia in the next Dail term [1]. Critics say euthanasia and assisted suicide always target the most vulnerable.
Halligan, the junior minister for skills, has approached several opposition TDs with a view to having them introduce a private member’s bill, as his position as a minister means he cannot do this himself. He vowed that legislation would be tabled “one way or the other” after the summer.
The Waterford TD said a number of TDs had indicated that they would back a bill.
Halligan introduced a private member’s bill on assisted suicide in the last Dail but it fell when the 2016 general election was called. It would have enabled euthanasia in cases when a person was terminally ill, over the age of 18, and had been living in Ireland for at least a year. “Terminally ill” was defined as someone who had been diagnosed by a doctor as having an “incurable and progressive illness that cannot be reversed by treatment, and the person is likely to die as a result of that illness or complications relating to it”.