FINE GAEL is to publish legislative proposals that would allow Irish people to make “living wills”.
A Bill drafted by Senator Liam Twomey, to be published today, has proposed that people should be allowed to decide what medical care and interventions should be used at the end of their lives.
The Advanced Healthcare Decisions Bill 2010 has advanced a legislative initiative in an area which is controversial, Dr Twomey has accepted.
But the Fine Gael Senator, a Wexford-based GP, said people who have terminal conditions should be allowed to make living wills before they become too ill to make decisions about interventions they may not want.
“There is a dearth of legislation in this area. Ireland lags behind when it comes to providing an opportunity to legally set out an individual’s preferred end-of-life treatment, in the event of an incurable or terminal illness.
“The Bill will allow people to make decisions about their care before they become so unwell they cannot do so,” he said.
Dr Twomey said the initiative aimed to provide for a patient’s dignity, bodily integrity, privacy and autonomy during the latter stages of life. It was in keeping with a 2008 consultation paper by the Law Reform Commission, he said.
“There has been much debate on the issue of late and people are fearful that, due to advances in medical care, they may be kept alive indefinitely against their wishes by life-prolonging treatment. The need to legislate for advanced healthcare directives, also commonly known as ‘living wills’, is strongly underpinned by the need to eliminate surrogate-decision making by a relative that may not accurately reflect the views and interests of the patient,” he said.