Joint Committee on Assisted Dying to meet on the topic of engaging people with disabilities

Representatives from Independent Living Movement Ireland (ILMI) and Disability Federation of Ireland (DFI) will appear at the Committee.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, Committee Cathaoirleach Deputy Michael Healy Rae said: “This is the second meeting in the Committee’s module examining potential consequences of assisted dying."

"At previous hearings, the Committee heard repeated recommendations that disability should not be an eligibility criteria to access assisted dying under any model that the Committee might recommend. However, several witnesses stressed that this should not mean that people with disabilities should not be able to access assisted dying, if it were introduced, and if they met the eligibility criteria. It is also crucial that the voices of disabled people are not used as pawns for either side of the debate.”

“The social model of disability rather than the medical model, end of life support and care and an assisted dying model with eligibility criteria based around a terminal prognosis are among the topics we expect to discuss with representatives.”

Watch the meeting live on oireachtas.ie or on the Oireachtas smartphone app for Apple and Android.