Empathy, Compassion And Humanity

Anthony McIntyre welcomes the latest moves in Dail Eireann to introduce an enhanced measure of compassion to end of life care.

The "Dying with Dignity Bill" is back on the agenda in Ireland, having being reintroduced in the Dail a fortnight ago. Sponsored by People Before Profit TD, Gino Kenny, the socialist parliamentarian said the Bill, driven by an ethos of “empathy, compassion and humanity,” would give a terminally ill person the right to bring their suffering to an end through physician-assisted dying. "This is more to do with living than dying."

According to the wording of the Bill its rationale:

is to give to a person the legal and medical right of the authorisation of assisted dying where that person is suffering from a terminal illness. If this bill is enacted, this 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 the act.

In addition to a two-week cooling off clause – designed to give more time for reflection to terminally ill citizens who might ultimately change their minds – Mr Kenny has called for a free vote on the matter.

One of the first to endorse the proposed bill was Vicky Phelan, a terminally ill cancer sufferer.

No matter how good palliative care is, there is still a certain amount of suffering that palliative care often cannot get on top of … I have two young children and I'm going to die within the next few years and I don't want my children's last memories to be of me dying in pain. I want to make that choice.

The Bill had previously been introduced in 2015 by Independent TD John Halligan in the wake of the failed attempt by Marie Fleming two years earlier to challenge the Supreme Court prohibition on assisted dying. In its ruling the Court left it open for the Oireachtas to legislate on the matter. However, the Bill failed to progress when Halligan became a government minister the following year. Tom Curran, the partner of Marie Fleming when she died, also voiced support for the Kenny Bill.

Vicky Phelan, horrified at what Marie Fleming had to endure because of a lack of compassion in the area of terminally ill care said:

I was asked by Gino Kenny if I would support this Bill, and didn't have to be asked twice … I believe in it very strongly. I remember watching Marie Fleming’s case, when she couldn't make that choice, and being horrified at what that woman had to endure.

Gail O'Rourke also lent her support to the Bill. She was the target of an unsuccessful prosecution by the Irish state for arranging for a friend, Bernadette Forde to travel to Dignitas in Zurich so that she could be the recipient of assistance that would endure a peaceful, painless death. That dignified outcome was denied Ms Forde after Gardai intervened to prevent her travelling. She died alone after taking her own life.

In a welcome development Eoin O’Broin of Sinn Fein said his party would support the bill going to the second stage where it could be properly debated at Committee level. O’Broin accepted that not everybody in the party supported the measure but that was no reason to prevent a debate.

The Labour Party is also set to back the Bill. Its leader Alan Kelly claimed that, "now there is a public mood as regards giving people their dignity and that is why the Labour Party is supporting this legislation."

The government however is reported as being likely to oppose the passing of the Bill into law.

Not surprisingly the ridiculous “little old men” of the Vatican have described assisted dying as "an intrinsically evil act, in every situation or circumstance.” David Quinn of Ireland's Iona Institute has predictably marched in step with the little the little old men who unfailingly "beat the drum of obedience”. All manner of normal things are intrinsically evil to the warped minds of the Vatican, so there is no particular reason for people contemplating the measure to pay the slightest attention to the clerics. If the men of god do not want physician-assisted dying and prefer to expire in the manner of Marie Fleming and countless others denied any choice, they should be free to do so. They should not be permitted to stand in the way of others availing of the service. As Vicky Phelan argues:

We don't do it to animals. I don't see why we should do it to humans ... If you don't agree with that, that's fine. You don't have to choose that. But please allow people who want it to make the choice.

So callous is the Vatican, that is has instructed its priests to abandon people in their final minutes if they don’t submit to the clerical control freaks by undertaking to forfeit any right to assisted dying. For people like me, who would not want to be within a mile of a priest in my time of dying, this is great but for those who seek spiritual comfort it adds to their pain and anguish. It is emotional blackmail from people with the audacity to accuse others of practicing an intrinsic evil.

The autonomy often denied people throughout their lives can be seized back in death. Consider the words of Shon Mehta “I lived my whole life following others’ wishes. Let me follow my own wish in my death.”

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