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LAST UPDATE | 26 Sep 2023
SWISS ORGANISATION DIGNITAS has told a Dáil committee that 12 Irish people have travelled to the country to avail of assisted dying there in the last 20 years.
The group, which provides “physician-supported accompanied suicide” to its members in Switzerland, appeared at the Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying this morning.
It called for the legalisation of voluntary assisted dying in Ireland, claiming that it would “soothe suffering” and improve quality of life among certain patients here.
The committee is currently examining whether to introduce voluntary assisted dying laws in Ireland, following the passage of a bill tabled by People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny in 2020.
Dignitas member Silvan Luley told TDs this morning that its Irish membership grew from 57 to 80 between 2020 and last year, and that 12 people have travelled to Switzerland to end their lives since 2003, most recently in 2020.
“Voluntary assisted dying should be legalised as a choice for the Irish alongside other options to soothe suffering and improving quality of life, may it be palliative care, hospice work, suicide attempt prevention, good care in old age, and more,” Luley said.
He explained that the system in Switzerland allows groups like Dignitas and doctors to care for individuals who wish to determine the time and manner of how “their suffering and life ends”.
Assisted dying has been allowed since 1942 in Switzerland, which was the first country in the world to legalise such a system.
Under Swiss law, any patient may voluntarily decide to be prescribed with drugs that can kill them, but they must take an active role in administering the drugs themselves.
It is not legal for a second person to administer the lethal drugs (the practice known as ‘euthanasia’). However, non-residents may travel to Switzerland to avail of assisted dying.
Luley told TDs that the introduction of assisted dying in Ireland would give patients “what everyone deserves: a legal way to exercise the human right of freedom of choice on all options of professional care to soothe suffering and end life, at their home”.
“It’s not about making use of this option right away but having an emergency exit door which provides emotional relief and can prevent people from having to use rough methods,” he said.
He claimed that without such a system, some people may choose to end their lives using more violent means, and that the strength of a society was measured how it deals with treating its sickest.
“In my 20 years of working with Dignitas - this might sound strange to you – I’ve never seen somebody who wants to die,” he said.
“The people who come to Dignitas, they don’t want to die; [but] they don’t want to continue living in a situation that they feel does not match their quality of life from their personal perspective.”
The committee also heard from Dutch healthcare ethics expert Professor Theo Boer, who raised concerns about the expansion of euthanasia in the Netherlands, where the practice has been legal since 2002.
Boer told the committee that euthanasia has made ageing and dying “a task to be managed” and that euthanasia has “sky-rocketed” in the Netherlands in recent years.
“The legalisation of euthanasia has done much more than just providing some citizens the liberty to take a way out,” he said.
“It turned the whole landscape of dying, including our view of illness, suffering, ageing, and care-dependence upside down.”
He said that assisted deaths account for 15% to 20% of all deaths in some parts of the Netherlands, and claimed the reason why the national average is still at 5.2% is because some rural areas have an average of around 2% of assisted deaths.
Boer also suggested that the expansion of euthanasia in the Netherlands has led to increased pressure on patients to consider it as an option.
“I don’t think there’s very much family pressure there, but there is a societal pressure,” he said.
“I compare it to flying. I mean, everyone is flying. Even if you don’t fly, you know that you can fly and take an airplane. In the same sense there is this general societal pressure.”
He said he was worried that society was getting to a stage “in which death is increasingly seen as a remedy against all kinds of unbearable suffering”.
However, Boer said that although he did not believe that Ireland should legalise assisted dying, he suggested the practice should not be criminalised if it could be proven that the patient freely chose to avail of it.
He also said that doctors could have a role in such a system by performing euthanasia to ensure the death is carried out in a way that is medically and professionally sound.
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I’ve always told my wife that I don’t ever want to be kept alive by machines or if I become ill with an untreatable condition I would rather die than suffer for years and be a burden on her and our kids. So I’d like to see it be made legal to end your life if there is no chance of living the independent life that I have lived so far.
Same.
@: can’t argue with that. It should be legalised imho
@lWOk0fWf: It raises the question though, Will life assurance pay up on the deceased.
@Dave Barrett: I honestly don’t see why they shouldn’t – when someone has a terminal condition. But that’s a separate issue for their customers.
Should be completely legal and a persons choice.
@B6Tr3OgE: if you can choose your gender these days sure why not.
@Temp Stuff: Neanderthal comment.
@Temp Stuff: Ah. You’re one of those lads …
No one should have the right to decide how much suffering another person should have to endure. If you’re terminal with less then 6 months to live then you should have the right to leave this world peacefully and with dignity. Religion should get no say in this debate. If you oppose it, oppose it with intellectual reasoned arguments and keep your bizarre belief in magic sky fairies out of it. Other people should never be forced to suffer because of your own personal beliefs.
Every grown adult of sound mind should be legally entitled to decide if they want to die. To force another human being to live in sometimes agonising incurable pain is simply barbaric. It’s cliche but we literally don’t do it to animals. It’s not for everyone, but it is everyone’s choice to make.
@Michelle Callan: Such sense…. Will surely be blinded by some lantern-jawed, sky pointer, mad to infect society with fear.
Give people the choice & have safeguards incorporated into the legislation. It will be here in time so just speed it up. One way ticket to Switzerland is a sad lonely indictment on Ireland.
Look at Canada, It now a booming organ donor exporter, Dangerous road to start going down.
@Common Sense: But the suppliers have all gone to Heaven so everyone is a winner.
@Common Sense: If you can sell your organs and get some money for your family, how bad.
@Common Sense: don’t fret, they’ll be all lab grown in years to come with the own patients cells
@Thesaltyurchin: selling organs, please
@Jimmy Wallace: satan would like us to believe that there is no hell. However mystics who have been shown hell would disagree.
For some action to be a mortal sin, it must be a serious matter and the person must have given full consent and have clear knowledge that it is a sin. We cannot therefore judge an individual as we don’t know their mind at the time.
Canada’s number of assisted deaths has gotten out of control.
Three very disturbing cases.
Alan Nicholas.
Rosina Kamis.
Kiano Vafaeian.
@John Lewis: Brilliant
@Tommy Haze: if yiu don’t want euthanasia then don’t opt for it. It’s very simple really.
They call it “dignitas” to give it a veil of dignity. However the reality is there’s never any dignity in being executed with a smile from those you’ve had to transfer monies from. We’ve all heard the excuse “no machines for me… pull the plug… etc” however death is a very profound and perhaps the most intimate moment in our lives. Do we want to hand that to a Dr Death stranger and pretend to ourselves, this is better than burdening others? Pain is bad but some things in life are even worse than dying or death.
Another point is to repeat one commenter here, “I don’t want to be a burden”…. How many old folk will feel they are a burden and bring on an undignified death, where it was done so as to save others the hassle. When something belongs to the culture of death, it is never good.
@Caoimín Ó Muircheartaigh: Nailed it.
@Caoimín Ó Muircheartaigh: ‘They, us, ‘reality’… this rhetoric is old, predictable and boring
@Thesaltyurchin: You’d rather nobody ever disagreed with anything wouldn’t you? A salty sleazy character like yourself would flourish in such an environment.
@Caoimín Ó Muircheartaigh: the burden thing is always the excuse rolled out, ask anyone who has considered assisted suicide and it’s not cause they feel they are a burden but that they don’t have a degrading quality of life.
@ForYourSafety: I’m here for the disagreements, I had thought that was clear.
Assisted dying today, coerced dying tomorrow.
@ForYourSafety: Again with the crystal ball.
@Brendan O’Brien: You don’t need a crystal ball snowflake, just a brain
@ForYourSafety: You don’t need a brain to make wild predictions. Clearly it’s a hobby of yours, and you will never admit at any point that you were wrong.
@ForYourSafety: How do you achieve anything with such self induced fear
@Thesaltyurchin: Lol I’m not a bit afraid. It’s great freedom to be able to watch these things unfold like falling dominos. Nothing to fear but fear itself. I do feel really bad for people who can’t see it. Even for you, I feel bad for you and your progeny if you have any.
@Brendan O’Brien: I’m not alone in my predictions, and whatever I’ve predicted in the past has indeed come to fruition. I can’t prove it on this platform however as you know yourself ’tis totally censored. If you like to wallow in your ig norance that’s your problem. You’re just another Ovis Aries
@ForYourSafety: Of course you can’t prove it. You’re just another phoney modern-day Nostradamus.
@Brendan O’Brien:no crystal Ball needed thats exactly what will happen,if u want rid of your inlaw to get the house ways around it
@ForYourSafety: were you one of those “slippery slope” mongers who was saying if same sex marriage passed people would be marrying their pets next? Please. “Coerced dying” is homicide and always will be.
@Gearoid MacEachaidh: Errr no…have you seen how it’s playing out in Canada? No reason to believe it will be any different if brought in here.
@Brendan O’Brien: Better than being a Governmnet S Hill any day
@ForYourSafety: complete BS. We don’t leave an animal to suffer but humans, we let suffer unbelievably . People should be allowed to choose dignity over some snowflake having an issue with euthanasia.
@Mary M: Read some about MAiD programme in Canada; understand the problems with legal assisted dying. It’s not as simple as you present it to be.
@ForYourSafety: ‘Freedom’ lol
@ForYourSafety: yeah…it might even fix the housing shortage.
@ForYourSafety: you ok Hun?
we should get cannabis legalised first.
@Gavin Gray: both
The first thing that will happen here is a waiting list.
They should feck off and mind their own business.
The Canadian MAiD euthanasia scheme is a stark illustration of just how scope creep inevitably distorts and perverts what may have originated as well intentioned legislation into something far more sinister.
Progressing from availablility for the very elderly and those suffering from chronic pain without hope of recovery or relief, through those who just don’t want to deal with pain any more regardless of possibility of recovery, it is now available as an option to the mentally ill, those affected by autism and those who just cannot affort to survive the skyrocketing cost of living.
Ironically, the Canadian state will provide euthanasia but not adequate welfare supports, especially for the disabled.
Brave new world..
@Dancey McDonagh: Additionally, legislation to allow euthanasia also presents the possibility of all assisted death not actually being voluntary; there is a very real danger that the elderly will feel pressurised or will actualkly be pressurised into taking this option rather than remaining as a burden on loved ones.
How can we ever be certain that someone wishes to end their life of their own volition and not due to coercive pressure from relatives, healthcare professionals etc?
At the end of the day it’s a very personalised subject and if people are in a place where its a helpful way to go then why should they be judge but if the rest of us reading this are not in this situation then who are we to judge life is precious but it is also very hard so think before you comment
We really should be looking at this here. It’s your life, you should decide how you leave this wonderful world.
I wouldn’t stay and be a burden on my wife and children if I was terminally sick and dying a slow painful death. Id go and do whatever I had to in order to not let that happen. I wouldn’t want them seeing me that way anyway.
@Dan The Man: Same here! There might be the (theoretical) risk “that the elderly will feel pressurised”, like some commenters wrote.
But I’m pretty sure more people are pushed to get at old age the cancer or whatever treatment, with the chance to have 6 more months of life with suffering.
Nothing more than government assisted suicide. It’s sad to see
@mainmsam: we could bring back Fianna Gael having the guards rounding up single and un married mothers and locking them up in institutions where they could literally be worked to death, there’s babies left die before finally being buried in a sewer. Good old days!!
@Michael o connor: In order to avoid that happening again, we’d better start issuing seniors with free euthanasia vouchers when they retire for all their years of service.
The people who are against assisted dying seem to forget its not about choosing to die – its choosing when to die
Check the last episode of Casualty on the BBC player. A very moving and at times humorous tale of assisted suicide in Switzerland. An accurate potrayal of the procedure and well worth watching.
We already have assisted dying in this country, the term used is “Palliative Care” and is being practiced every day in our hospitals. When people are terminally ill and no further treatment is recommended the Palliative Care option is offered and when accepted the team will carry out it’s care function in a very professional and dignified manner.
@liam: Palliative care: patients in palliative care may receive medical care for their symptoms, or palliative care, along with treatment intended to cure their serious illness.
That is not assisting dying. It’s dragging out living.
I think the biggest reason to legislate for this is that of you have a condition where you know death is going to be excruciating, it allows you to live your life knowing you can take control of it in the end.
The only worry I’d have is greedy family members who might use a bit of coercion. The idea of someone doing it because they feel they are a burden is terrible.
There’s a lot to this dilemma but I think all in all, it needs to be seriously considered.
@Louis Jacob: It does seem that that hasn’t been an issue in Switzerland at all. I’m all for legalising it, because desperate people have very few options here. I’d even go further and let them request medical assistance. If someone wants to go and has planned to, they may not have the strength to get on a plane, nor the ability to take whatever final prescription themselves. I’d hate to have made my decision and have to beg somebody else to help because I wasn’t able to complete it myself. You hear of people starving themselves because they’re terrified that a loved one might be blamed for their planned death.
It should be allowed in this country..if my time comes I will use whatever means I can to die when I decide.unless mother nature decides to interfere first.
Agreed, and I would hate to have to implicate someone else.
R.I.P to those who have taken their journey to Switzerland to end their pain !!
Dignitas give a very appropriate final Breakfast ( a generous bowl of Cheerios)If IRL introduce nothing but the (Full Irish) will suffice.
Well, that’s changed my mind! If I have to eat a cardboardy cereal instead of a decent meal, they certainly should change the law; that’s inhumane:-)
Though I agree with the need for assisted suicide. I’ve always been concerned that the government would abuse it, and Canada’s track record has shown that to be a possibility. There has to be solid safeguards in place to protect vulnerable individuals from greedy family members and government/medical cost priorities.
It would take away alot of the pain and suffering that families/friends go through following the suicide of a loved one; being able to say goodbye and having no regrets, carrying no guilt. Would diminish the trauma of it for the survivors.
You either can commit suicide, or you can’t. If you are terminal and truly want to go before your time, you can do it any number of ways with things you have in your kitchen or bathroom. And even leave a note to ease the minds of any who might not understand. If you no longer have the ability to accomplish it it some fashion without implicating another person, you just have to let nature take its course. Except in cases of capital punishment, we as a modern society have never legitimized the taking of a life in cold blood. That is what we’re talking about when we say “assisted suicide” or “assistance in dying”. We have a problem with this because it is neither suicide nor dying when it is killing.
Where do i sign up
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