CATHOLIC BISHOPS HAVE said they “totally reject” an Oireachtas Committee report that recommended that the government legislate to allow for assisted dying.

The Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference added that people with intellectual disabilities “would be particularly vulnerable” to any move to bring in assisted dying legislation.  

The Oireachtas Committee published its report in March following months of work examining whether to introduce voluntary assisted dying laws in Ireland.

It recommended that the government “introduces legislation allowing for assisted dying, in certain restricted circumstances”.

Among these restricted circumstances is that assisted dying should only be available to people who are diagnosed with a disease, illness or medical condition that meets all four of the criteria listed below.

The condition must be:

• both incurable and irreversible;
• advanced, progressive and will cause death;
• expected to cause death within six months (or, in the case of a person with a neurodegenerative disease, illness or condition, within 12 months); and
• causing suffering to the person that cannot be relieved in a manner that the person finds tolerable.

In a statement today, the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference said it “totally rejects” a recommendation to legislate for assisted dying.

It remarked that “whatever the circumstances, the deliberate taking of human life undermines a fundamental principle of civilised society, namely that no person can lawfully take the life of another”.

The Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference also said that it is “aware the report proposed various ‘restrictions’” on who could access assisted dying and under what circumstances.

“We have little confidence that those proposed restrictions would offer any real protection,” said the statement from the Irish Bishops.

“Taking into account what has happened in many other jurisdictions, and indeed, what is already happening in Ireland with regard to the law on abortion, we believe that it would be only a matter of time before proposals would be on the table again to extend the availability of assisted suicide to those in our society who are most vulnerable, including people with intellectual disabilities”

The statement added that “people who are dying are entitled to be accompanied in a holistic way”.

It called for palliative care services to be “more widely available, in hospitals and hospices and in the community” and that “sufficient resources [be made] available for the integral care of the dying”.

The group also said it “specifically rejects” a recommendation that in cases where a healthcare professional refuses to provide assisted dying services, they would be required to refer the patient to a participating healthcare professional.

The Irish Bishops said this would “radically undermine the ethos of healthcare”.