The defeat of two referenda to remove the word woman from the constitution and alter the legal definition of what constitutes a family under Irish law appears not to have blunted progressives in Ireland. On Thursday, March 21st, the legalisation of euthanasia passed a crucial milestone in the Irish Parliament (Oireachtas).
Initiated by Trotskyist MP (TD) Gino Kenny in 2020, and finding tacit support among the Republic’s ruling centrist parties, the parliament’s “Committee on Assisted Dying” rubber-stamped plans to introduce both euthanasia and assisted dying for the terminally ill.
Currently, euthanasia is the latest target of a decade of liberalisation, which has undermined the Catholic ethos behind Irish law. This latest effort follows the legalisation of abortion and same-sex marriage by popular vote in 2018 and 2015, respectively.
It is unknown whether the Irish government will be required to hold a referendum to legalise euthanasia. However, the governing parties are unlikely to rush a bill through parliament before the next election, at which point liberal legislators will have to begin the process again.
Ireland’s era of liberal referenda could be at an end, however, with the ruling Fine Gael party admitting that future votes could risk populist backlashes as migration quickly becomes the defining issue of Irish politics.
The moves to legalise euthanasia have been opposed by the Catholic Church as well as conservative lawmakers such as Senator Ronan Mullen, who previously campaigned against the ideological capture of the committee deciding on the matter.
Responding to the decision to begin the legislative process for euthanasia, the advocacy group Family Solidarity warned that government parties had “ignored the pleas of many Irish medical organisations, which have highlighted the ethical dilemmas and the potential for a slippery slope.”
The organisation went on to dismiss claims that supposed safeguards to prevent the expansion of euthanasia would work, describing how in every jurisdiction where the practice had been introduced, guardrails had been “gradually eroded.” They added that attention should instead be paid to palliative care.
Euthanasia is currently legal in five European countries: the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and more recently, Germany and Spain. The Dutch system has attracted particular notoriety for its leniency and willingness to kill patients with psychiatric rather than terminal illnesses.
Many testifying before the Irish Parliament have warned that Ireland could follow the Dutch example, with the use of the phrase ‘foreseeable death’ being questioned by anti-euthanasia activist Janie Lazar.
A viral video of one of Ireland’s foremost legal experts, Professor William Binchy, clashing with one progressive senator has already attracted mainstream attention, while conservatives warn that the process around euthanasia has been hijacked by liberal parliamentarians.
Regardless, the risk of an election and the shock resignation of the Republic’s liberal prime minister, Leo Varadkar, are likely to stall the country’s march towards liberalism, at least temporarily. Most pundits predict a general election within the next 12 months.
