“This House Would Legalise Euthanasia”

The NUI Galway Literary & Debating Society will be hosting a debate on the hugely controversial subject of Euthanasia at 7pm on Thursday March 25th in the Kirwan Lecture Theatre on the main Arts Concourse of NUI Galway.

How do you put a value on a life? Euthanasia seeks to do just that, by allowing someone to decide when the pain and suffering the feel mean that every moment spent alive is worse than a quick painless end. A subject that is hugely emotive in Ireland, this practice is legal in Switzerland, The Netherlands and some US states today.

Can it ever be right to allow someone to choose death? In a society which protects your right to life above all other things, how can we stand over someone’s decision to throw away that right? Surely for a doctor, to aid someone in essentially killing themselves goes against the Hippocratic Oath that they have sworn.

Then again, what about the principles of autonomy, of allowing people to choose what to do with their own bodies? It’s well over a decade since the Irish laws making suicide a crime were repealed, doesn’t this give a clearer picture of how we value life today? Our society is moving towards a place where Freedom of Choice is the ultimate goal, and what greater choice can there be? As for doctors, aren’t they just doing what they can to ease pain? Can we really prosecute them for fulfilling their patients?

Speaking at this event will be the hugely divisive Len Doyal, recently prevented from speaking in Cork University Hospital on this subject. Come along to hear the experts make the case for and against the motion “This House Would Legalise Euthanasia”.