by Louise Doyle
A MOTHER whose teenage daughter has a progressive disease has told a public meeting in Letterkenny she is ‘very concerned’ proposed assisted dying legislation will lack safeguards.
The woman, whose daughter is just a teenager, spoke at a packed public meeting in Mount Errigal on Tuesday night.
The event was organised by a group of local doctors and medical professionals who are opposed to any such legislation.
The Joint Oireachtas Committee on Assisted Dying has recommended the Government introduce legislation to allow for assisted dying in certain restricted circumstances.
“My daughter is 19. She is an adult with a progressive disease. She lives with chronic pain, but she has not let this dampen her will to live,” the worried mum said.
“My concern, as her mother, is for the regulation of this legislation. How are they going to regulate it, mental health wise? How are they going to determine that a person wishes to die by assisted suicide, and that they are not suffering from depression which can be treated? I know there will be two independent doctors involved in any decision made but how can they, having just met a person once, decide whether that person has depression or has made a genuine conscious decision to end their life?”
For full coverage of Tuesday’s public meeting see today’s edition of the Donegal News.