The Supreme Court has said that there is no constitutional right to assisted suicide.
In a ruling yesterday, the court rejected an appeal by a woman with multiple sclerosis against a High Court judgement from earlier this year which had said that assisted suicide was not a right under the Constitution.
The Iona Institute welcomed the ruling. However, it also said the Government should not legislate for assisted suicide which the Supreme Court said is still open to it.
In a statement, it said that the wider societal implications of granting such a right had to be considered.
Dr John Murray, a spokesman for the institute, said the effect on other vulnerable people of recognising such a right must be taken into account.
Dr Murray said that, while we should feel compassion for people who are suffering and who are terminally ill the effect of creating a right to die on people suffering from terrible illnesses also had to be considered.
It was important that society considered the signal that would be sent by the creation of such a right, Dr Murray said.
Chief Justice, Mrs Justice Susan Denham said that the decriminalisation of suicide had not created a constitutional right to suicide, the Irish Times reported.
Chief Justice Denham said that the Constitution contained no explicit right to commit suicide, or to determine the time of one’s own death.
There was, accordingly, no constitutional right which the State, including the courts, must protect and vindicate, either to commit suicide or to arrange for the termination of one’s own life at a time of one’s choosing.
The court also rejected the suggestion that the principle of equal treatment conferred on Ms Fleming, as a disabled person, the right to be assisted in taking her own life.
However Chief Justice Denham added that nothing in the judgment of the court necessarily implied that the State could legislate to allow for assisted suicide in cases such as that of Ms Fleming.
Dismissing claims that the absolute ban on assisted suicide breaches Ms Fleming’s rights under the European Convention on Human Rights, she said the European court has ruled it was primarily for states to assess the risk of abuse if the general ban on assisted suicide was relaxed or if exceptions were to be created.
The complex issue of assisted suicide has been assessed here, and the legislature had legislated by enacting the absolute ban, she said. The court would, consequently, dismiss the claim the ban was incompatible.
Last January, the High Court ruled the absolute ban is fully justified under the Constitution to protect the most vulnerable in society.
