Ireland Needs Hope

Hope Ireland was founded in 2015 by the late disability rights activist Dr Kevin Fitzpatrick OBE. Kevin was a celebrated academic, visionary and leader in the disability rights field. The inaugural Hope Ireland conference which was held in the RDS in 2015, and was addressed by Irish and international experts from the fields of medicine, disability rights, and law.

Following Kevin’s untimely death, Hope Ireland has continued to host occasional events on end of life matters, and has been a strong and positive voice against the introduction euthanasia and assisted suicide in Ireland.

Events we have held include a 2020 webinar featuring Prof Des O’Neill, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and Dr Sinéad Donnelly.

In 2021, we hosted an online conference, featuring disability rights advocates, mental health professionals, and palliative medicine specialists. Speakers included Joan Freeman, Baroness Ilora Finlay, and Elma Walsh.

In 2023, we hosted an in-person conference titled Living and Dying with Dignity. Speakers included Professor Des O’Neill (Consultant Physician in Geriatric Medicine), Dr Miriam Colleran (Consultant in Palliative Medicine), Dr Gordon MacDonald (Chief Executive of Care Not Killing), and Alex Schadenberg (Executive Director and Chair of Euthanasia Prevention Coalition International).

We contributed to the Oireachtas hearings on the Dying with Dignity Bill in 2023/24, advising TDs, senators and speakers on the iill-conceived proposals for assisted suicide and euthanasia. This Bill lapsed with the change of government in the winter of 2024/25.

A new “aid in dying” law passed the French National Assembly could bring legally- sanctioned forms of medically supervised assisted dying to France in 2025/26. An assisted  suicide Bill  working its way through the UK Parliament in Westminster could become law in Britain and Northern Ireland and operational within a few years. 

Undoubtedly, there will be further pressure on Irish legislators to seek to introduce euthanasia in the coming years. The Netherlands, with a population of 18 million people now has 10,000 people dying annually through euthanasia. An equivalent figure for Ireland (if a euthanasia and assisted suicide law were passed) would be over 3,000 per annum. Hope Ireland sees itself as playing an important role in informing the Irish public about the inherent dangers in any proposal to change the law around assisted suicide in Ireland.

At the end of 2024 Ireland’s first adult palliative care strategy in over 20 years was launched, the National Adult Palliative Care Policy (2024). €155 million was allocated for palliative care in 2024—a 53% increase compared to 2020.

The policy includes recommendations  around enhancing public awareness, community engagement, supporting GPs to deliver home-based palliative care, addressing regional service variation and expanding out-of-hours community care to reduce unnecessary hospital admissions.  With a projected increase of around 70% in deaths in Ireland requiring palliative care by 2046, significant challenges remain, particularly in equality of access, workforce training, and non-cancer service availability. The projected increase in need requires ongoing efforts to ensure those suffering or in need receive the best possible supports at the end of their lives. As life draws to a close, or people feel themselves a burden in this individualistic society, people need assistance in living, not in dying.

There is much work to be done by Hope Ireland and its supporters: protecting vulnerable groups, advocating for better palliative and health care support, and resisting normalisation of assisted death. We hope that many more will join us in helping the medical profession do what it is tasked to do – preserve life, relieve suffering, and provide compassionate care so that everyone, especially the vulnerable, gets a chance to live fully fulfilled lives.