Irish euthanasia bill to be debated.

Alex Schadenberg
Executive Director, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition

The Irish euthanasia bill, that is sponsored by People Before Profit TD Gino Kenny, passed in a second vote in the Dáil by a 81 to 71 vote after the governing party failed to send the bill to a special Oireachtas committee to consider the legislation and report back within 12 months.

On September 29 I published an article assessing the Irish euthanasia bill where I stated:

The Irish "Dying with dignity" euthanasia bill is short but it is crafted to protect medical practitioners who are willing to kill. It is important to note that the Irish bill legalizes both euthanasia (lethal injection) and assisted suicide.

I also stated that the bill falsely claims to be limited to terminally ill people.

The bill claims to be limited to terminally ill people, but the definition of terminal illness: "having an incurable and progressive illness which cannot be reversed by treatment, and the person is likely to die as a result of that illness or complications" does not include a time-frame for death and uses the term likely to cause death.

Therefore the bill is not limited to terminally ill people but rather people with chronic or terminal conditions. There are many people who are not terminally ill but are defined as terminally ill by this bill.

The Irish Central reported that TD Kenny, the sponsor of the bill, said he is hopeful that a report will be put to the Oireachtas early next spring to be legislated for, "or possibly even a referendum."