Ireland: Euthanasia Becomes Next Target for the Liberal Agenda
By Thomas O’Reilly, European Conservative.
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.”
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