(From top: Tom Curran and Marie Fleming, and Stephen Donnelly in the Dáil this morning)
In light of Gail O’Rorke being charged with assisting the suicide of another woman yesterday, Independent TD Stephen Donnelly spoke about the subject of assisted suicide in Leaders’ Questions this morning, which were being taken by Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore.
Mr Donnelly recalled the recent case of former UCD lecturer and MS sufferer Marie Fleming, 58, who went to the Supreme Court seeking permission to be allowed die with the help of her partner Tom Curran at a time of her choosing, because she no longer had the use of her limbs and was incapable of taking her life on her own. The Supreme Court ruled the Constitution doesn’t include a right to suicide or to organise someone’s death.
Ms Fleming and Mr Curran took the case because, under Irish law, Mr Curran could face a 14-year sentence for helping his wife die.
This morning, Mr Donnelly told the Dáil that he spoke to Mr Curran this morning.
Stephen Donnelly: “I spoke with Tom this morning, Tánaiste and he said that Marie’s condition has worsened since the Supreme Court case. He told me that Marie is now completely immobile, other than her mouth. He told me that Marie is in constant pain and the last time they tried to adjust her pain medication, to deal with the increasing pain, she lapsed into a coma so they can’t do that any more. Marie’s ability to swallow is getting worse, making it increasingly difficult for her to eat. Tom said, Tánaiste, that Marie wants to live, that she has a lot of reasons to live. But her ability to eat may deteriorate and Marie has said that she is adamant that she won’t use artificial feeding. In that case, under the current legislation, Marie Fleming would starve to death. I asked Tom this morning what question would Marie put to you, and I think indeed to all of us in the Oireachtas, and he told me that she would ask us the following: ‘Come and live my life for 24 hours and see if you think helping me to die should be a crime. Come and spend 24 hours in my house and see what you think’. He said Marie would ask all of us to protect her family, that she would ask us at Oireachtas to change the law so that she could died on her own terms without the threat of Tom Curran spending 14 years in prison.”
Previously: Marie Fleming on Broadsheet
