People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny (pictured) has appealed to politicians of all parties to support a bill on assisted dying he is introducing in the Dáil today (15 September).

The TD says the rationale behind the Dying with Dignity Bill 2020 is to give a person the legal and medical right to authorise voluntary assisted dying where that person is suffering from a terminal illness.

Former TD John Halligan attempted to introduce a similar bill in 2015.

Time right for debate

If Deputy Kenny’s bill is enacted, it would give a medical practitioner the legal right to provide assistance to a qualifying person to end his or her own life in accordance with the terms set out in legislation.

The TD has appealed to party leaders to allow a free vote on the issue.

The bill is being supported by cervical cancer campaigner Vicky Phelan, who said she believed the time was right to have a debate on the issue of dying with dignity.

Choice

Right to Die campaigner Tom Curran, whose wife Marie Fleming took a legal challenge to the Supreme Court on the issue before her death in 2013, is also backing the bill.

“In our compassionate Ireland, we still insist that some people, often against their express wishes, have a prolonged and sometimes painful end of life,” he said.

Gail O'Rourke, who was prosecuted but found not guilty in 2013 for helping MS-sufferer and friend Bernadette Forde to travel to Switzerland, where assisted dying is legal, said the issue was about choice and needed to be discussed openly and honestly.