The 37-year-old disabled man who travelled to Switzerland to avail of assisted suicide late last year was a patient in Peamount Hospital in Dublin until shortly before his death. Dr Muiris Houston, Medical Correspondent, reports.
The single man, who had quadriplegia following a train accident in Berlin in 1997, left St Bríd's ward at Peamount on Saturday, November 20th, for a routine visit home.
When he failed to return, hospital staff contacted his mother who informed them that her son had passed away in Switzerland. A spokeswoman for Peamount Hospital said yesterday it had no comment to make.
Ludwig Minelli, the founder of Dignitas, the Swiss right-to-die organisation involved in the man's assisted suicide, said yesterday that while they do not give information on specific cases, they never "accompany a person to suicide if the person is not able to communicate or to make decisions.
"We always look first if the person is able to make decisions and if the person is able to communicate," Mr Minelli stressed. "If these conditions are fulfilled we can help them," he added.
It is understood that the man, who had severe brain and neck injuries, travelled to Zurich where the assisted suicide took place.
It has also emerged that Mr Minelli spoke at a debate on euthanasia at the Literary and Historical Society in UCD on October 20th last year.
Mr Minelli said yesterday that a person who wants to die in Switzerland must perform the "last act themselves".
Professor of legal medicine at UCD Denis Cusack last night questioned whether a person who helps a disabled patient travel to Switzerland to avail of assisted suicide could be in breach of the 1993 Suicide Act.
Prof Anthony Cunningham, a consultant anaesthetist in the intensive care unit of Beaumont Hospital and professor of anaesthetics at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, said yesterday that a feature of all cases of assisted suicide is that they need not reach such an extreme stage. Referring to decisions to initiate procedures such as ventilation and dialysis in critical care situations, he said: "Just because we can do these things does not mean we always should."
Prof Cunningham questioned whether the medical profession was abdicating some of its responsibilities by not discussing treatment dilemmas in advance. He said he believed in the usefulness of advance directives for patients being treated for cancer and other serious illnesses.
While a spokesman for the Medical Council was unavailable for comment, a source familiar with its guidelines said that regardless of the legality or otherwise of assisted suicide, a doctor assisting a suicide would likely face sanction under its ethical guidelines.
A spokesman for the Minister of State at the Department of Health with responsibility for mental health, Tim O'Malley, said assisted suicide was an offence under criminal law in the Republic.