Curran ‘surprised’ by committee reaction
‘LOTS OF QUESTIONS’ FOR TOM CURRAN FROM JOINT COMMITTEE ON JUSTICE
ARKLOW-BASED right-todie campaigner Tom Curran stressed that no political party has properly addressed the issue to date when he appeared before the Joint Committee on Justice and Equality last week.
The Killahurler man, who has continued the campaign launched by his late partner Marie Fleming while she was in the latter stages of Multiple Sclerosis, said that there is nothing preventing the Oireachtas from enacting a law that would allow people to choose to end their life by assisted suicide while protecting the vulnerable.
Mr Curran was invited to make a submission to the committee last week, months after the bill he drafted with Minister John Halligan had gone dormant.
‘I drafted the bill within 18 months Marie dying and John Halligan submitted it as a Private Members’ Bill. However, when he got into Government, he was no longer a private member and so we needed to get another TD to sponsor it. It had been in the lottery system for this but nothing happened for a long time,’ Mr Curran said.
During his submission to the committee, he outlined the reasons why he is campaigning for new legalisation to be introduced surrounding assisted suicide.
‘ This is and has always been about giving a person a choice. They may never make that choice but having it would give enormous comfort to people who find themselves in the situation which Marie was in,’ he said. ‘She knew that she faced to likelihood of a prolonged and possibly painful death and she, as the strong-willed person she was, was not prepared to let that happen. Marie didn’t want to die. Far from it. Marie wanted to live, she was never suicidal, but she didn’t want a bad death,’ he said.
Mr Curran, whose submission and question and answer session lasted over three hours, said that he was ‘pleasantly surprised’ by the committee’s response.
‘There was one member who was very much against assisted suicide but the others wanted a lot of information and asked a lot of questions,’ he said.
He added that now the debate has been started once again, he intends to focus his energy on the campaign in the hope of getting the bill passed.
‘I had reduced my input but this had refocussed my attention and I will be working on it much more in the coming months.’