Throughout last month the Irish parliament heard from interested parties on assisted suicide, covering a wide range of issues from the constitutional and legal implications, through the ethics of autonomy and the implications of changes on healthcare professionals.
The Joint Committee on Assisted Dying was formed in January initially to consider and make recommendations for legislative and policy change relating to a statutory right to assist a person to end his or her life and a statutory right to receive such assistance in Ireland, and is required to report to both houses of parliament on its findings nine months after its first public meeting which took place in June.
