The final report from the Oireachtas [Irish parliament] Committee on Assisted Dying is anticipated to recommend permitting assisted suicide for individuals who have a terminal illness that is “incurable, irreversible, progressive and advanced” and whose suffering cannot be alleviated in a way that they deem “tolerable.”
Usually, the period is six months; in the case of neurodegenerative disorders, it is twelve months.
A medical professional would supervise any assisted death, but the committee report will also contain a conscience provision that permits any physician, nurse, or other medical worker to decline to perform such a job.
Suicide is currently permitted in Ireland; however, helping someone commit suicide is forbidden, and doing so carries a potential 14-year prison sentence.
When Marie Fleming, his lover, asked Tom Curran to assist in terminating her life in December 2013, it was the risk he took.
Mr. Curran told News, “She didn’t want a bad death, but she wasn’t afraid of dying.”
