The Joint Committee was established by Dáil Éireann and Seanad Éireann earlier this year following the Oireachtas Committee on Justice’s decision in July 2021 not to progress the Dying with Dignity Bill 2020, which the Justice Committee had described at the time as having ‘serious technical issues in several sections…and flaws’.
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Very Rev Dr David Bruce, Convener of PCI’s General Council voiced PCI’s ongoing ethical, moral and legal concerns with regards to any possible legislative changes to the status quo. He was joined on the call by Dr Rebecca Stevenson, PCI’s Public Affairs Officer.
During the presentation Dr Bruce - who was a member of the panel which submitted the Church’s response to the public consultation on the 2020 Dying with Dignity Bill – said that Assisted Dying raised the most fundamental of questions about the value that is placed on human life in Ireland. He spoke of the Church’s concern around the unintended policy consequences, should the law be altered, particularly if there is a lack of sufficient safeguards to protect vulnerable people, especially if the provision is extended to anyone resident on the island of Ireland, which would include Northern Ireland.
Speaking to the Joint Committee from his home in Lisburn, Dr Bruce said, “The sixth commandment in the Bible to not kill is clear, and has been enshrined as a cornerstone of judicial systems across the world for thousands of years. There are exceptions to this prohibition, but they are few and subject to rigorous regulation. For people of faith, the starting point here is that human life is special – we may even say sacred – and that its preservation, its dignity and its protection, are moral values which we seek to protect.”
During PCI’s presentation, the former Presbyterian Moderator highlighted the conflicting tensions, and finely balanced and competing fundamental Human Right to Liberty and Personal Freedom, and the Right to Protection of Life, that would be upset by any change in the law.
Along with others who presented to the Joint Committee, Dr Bruce said that PCI also had concerns on the potential detrimental impact on doctors involved in Assisted Dying cases, as the failed 2020 Bill would have placed them at the heart of implementing the system.
He highlighted the concerns expressed to the Church, by medical practitioners, should the law change, in that they could have a role to play as professional advisors on strictly medical aspects of a request to die. “If doctors are made the judges in such matters, this will fundamentally change the doctor patient relationship,” Dr Bruce said.
Addressing the Joint Committee, Dr Bruce emphasised the significant and valuable role palliative care and hospices currently play in supporting patients, who have life limiting terminal conditions “The medical speciality of palliative care…exists to help support patients who have conditions which cannot be cured and who need help in managing their physical, emotional or spiritual symptoms. This surely encapsulates the vision of the founder of the hospice movement, Dame Cicely Saunders. In our own research, it is significant to us that it is palliative care practitioners themselves who have been the most adamant of the medical specialities opposing a change in the current law,” he said.
Dr Bruce concluded by saying, “The central position of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland is that human life is sacred, that our Human Right to Life needs to be protected, and that a change to the law in this regard would be detrimental to the life of the nation…[T]he mainstreaming and strengthening of palliative care services to support those who are nearing the end of their lives…are the marks of a mature and caring society.”
Photo: Dr Bruce addressing the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying via video link (Credit Oireachtas TV)
You can read Dr Bruce's presentation here.