There is no right to be assisted to commit suicide under the Irish Constitution and to argue such a right exists for a small 
number of people is “radical and unprecedented”, the State has told the High Court.
Michael Cush SC, arguing for the State, said that, while suicide has been decriminalised, the State did not accept there is any right for a person to take their own life, the Irish Times reports.
The ban on assisted suicide under Irish law would be “illogical” if there was a right to take one’s own life.
The courts here have also recognised that the primary personal right under the Constitution is the right to life and that right is not owned just by an individual but by society, counsel added.
Marie Fleming, in her challenge to the constitutionality of the ban on assisted suicide, was effectively arguing a small subset of people have a right to take their own lives and the State did not accept that, he added
He was making submissions for the State in the continuing challenge by Ms Fleming (58), who is terminally ill with multiple sclerosis, to challenge the ban on assisted suicide set out in Section 2.2 of the Criminal Law Suicide Act 2003.
In her action, Ms Fleming wants orders which would allow her to be lawfully assisted in taking her own life at a time of her choice. She also argues the DPP should be required to set out the factors to be considered when deciding whether to prosecute a case of assisted suicide.
Earlier, Brian Murray SC., for Ms Fleming, provided the court with a letter from Ms Fleming’s general practitioner outlining what would happen if Ms Fleming refused medical treatment. The doctor said Ms Fleming is in significant pain now and, if medical treatment were withdrawn, she would suffer more and die in significant distress.
Last week, in a submission to the High Court on the case, the Irish Human Rights Commission said it considers a person has a right, flowing from their personal autonomy rights, to take their own life in ‘defined’ and ‘extreme’ circumstances.
Frank Callanan SC, for the Commission, said he wanted to avoid using the term “right to die” as that was “emotive and not entirely accurate”.
He agreed with Mr Justice Hogan another way of looking at Ms Fleming’s case was whether the State, in criminalising assisted suicide, could compel a person to live on and endure a “horrible and unimaginable death” that in other circumstances would amount to torture.