Gardaí are treating the death of a Dublin woman as one of suspected assisted suicide rather than euthanasia, writes Joe Humphreys
The question of whether euthanasia or assisted suicide should be decriminalised has been brought into the limelight as a result of what may prove to be the Republic's first confirmed such case.
While gardaí have yet to pin-point the cause of death in the case of a middle-aged woman found in her apartment late last week, they believe she was assisted in killing herself by two individuals who travelled to Ireland from the United States.
The Garda Síochána is treating the case as one of suspected assisted suicide rather than euthanasia, although the distinction between the two is largely irrelevant under the law.
Assisted suicide is defined as a death whereby the victim himself or herself performs the final act which causes death.
This would include a situation whereby the victim pushes a switch to trigger a fatal injection after a doctor had inserted an intravenous needle into his or her arm.
Euthanasia, in contrast, is where a third party performs the last act which intentionally causes the victim's death.
Neither are specifically mentioned under the Criminal Law (Suicide) Act, 1993, which was the first statute to decriminalise suicide.
Instead, the Act prohibits any person from aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring the suicide of another. The crime is punishable by a jail term of up to 14 years.
The Act also stipulates that the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions is required before proceedings are initiated.
Crucially, in making a decision on whether or not to prosecute, the DPP can take a number of matters into consideration, including the question of whether or not it would be contrary to "public policy" to prosecute someone who committed a crime where public opinion considered it inappropriate.
In practice, this might mean the DPP would decide against taking a case if the offender was a close relative who, it was felt, had already suffered greatly from the assisted suicide.
Such considerations, however, do not seem to apply in this case as the offenders were not related to the victim. Nor were they from the jurisdiction, which raises a further question over whether extradition proceedings can be initiated.
Gardaí in Donnybrook are investigating the death with the assistance of forensic experts from the Garda Technical Bureau.
Garda sources said they had taken a number of fingerprints from the scene. They also took blood samples from the victim, which they hope will identify the means of death.
It is believed the woman in question made contact with the two individuals through a confidential "chat-room" on the Internet.
According to a spokesman for the Hemlock Society, the largest euthanasia campaign group in the US, "most organisations would not help out someone who was depressed". However, he said, "there are organisations and individuals who operate on their own, and are willing to intervene more aggressively".
In the case of the Hemlock Society, trained "caring friends" are provided to members "who are hopelessly ill and want to consider their options", the spokesman said. He stressed, however, members had to be residents of the United States, and must not be suffering depression.