Irish committee recommends assisted dying legalisation

The special Oireachtas committee in the Republic of Ireland published its report which recommends that legislation should be introduced to allow for assisted dying. Humanists UK welcomes this move by the Irish committee and urges Westminster to take note.

Read the report here.

Disappointingly, just last month the UK Health and Social Care Committee released its lacklustre report on assisted dying which didn’t deliver any conclusions at all, possibly reflecting the pre-existing anti-assisted dying views of many of the committee’s members.

The Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying made 38 recommendations, including that legislation be introduced to allow for assisted dying. People with incurable, irreversible, progressive and advanced illnesses that will cause death within six months will be eligible. This time limit is set at 12 months for neurodegenerative conditions.

The report recommends that Irish citizens or ordinary residents for twelve months be eligible, which means that Northern Irish people under the Irish Nationality and Citizenship Act of 1956 will be able to travel to Ireland for an assisted death. Bangor Humanists will be hosting an event on assisted dying about the implications of the Republic of Ireland’s legislation tonight. 

In October 2023, Humanists UK Chief Executive Andrew Copson gave evidence to the committee. He set out the humanist case that any assisted dying law should be based on relieving unnecessary suffering and that adults of sound mind who are intolerably suffering from a physical, incurable condition should have this end-of-life choice.

Parliamentary Humanists Group meeting in Westminster yesterday. She told the APPHG that an essential part of the committee’s research was listening to lived experience. One individual with Motor Neurone Disease testified via video posthumously.

Nathan Stilwell, Assisted Dying Campaign for Humanists UK, said:

‘Well done to the Irish special Oireachtas committee on assisted dying for taking an evidence-based and compassionate approach. The difference between the Irish committee and the recent Westminster committee is stark and it’s such a shame that the latter didn’t go as far to recommend legislation.

This report has implications for the UK citizens of Northern Ireland. We urge Stormont to take note, as recent developments mean that before the end of the decade the people of Northern Ireland could have access to assisted dying from both the Republic of Ireland and from Britain. 

Overall, this is yet another report that outlines the overwhelming evidence in favour of assisted dying. Across the British Isles, people are united in wanting change and not one more person should have to go through an unnecessarily painful death when other countries are repeatedly showing that a more compassionate route is possible.’