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Head of Faculty, Griffith College, Ireland
Title:Artificial Intelligence in Assisted Dying Capacity Assessments for Minors: Ethical, Legal, and Practical Considerations.
The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into medical and legal decision-making is anevolving frontier with profound ethical and legal implications. This paper explores the
potential role of AI in assessing the decision-making capacity of individuals requestingassisted dying. Capacity assessments are critical in ensuring autonomy, informed consent,and protection from coercion. Traditionally reliant on clinical judgment, could theseassessments benefit from AI’s ability to enhance consistency, efficiency, and objectivity. AIdriven tools could analyse cognitive function, detect patterns of reasoning, and providelongitudinal monitoring, thereby assisting clinicians in making more robust determinations.However, the use of AI in this sensitive context raises significant challenges.
Concernsinclude algorithmic bias, data privacy, the "black box" problem of opaque decision-making,and the risk of over-reliance on technology at the expense of human judgment. Furthermore,legal and ethical acceptability varies by jurisdiction, necessitating robust regulatoryframeworks, transparency, and human oversight. While AI may support assessments byproviding supplementary insights, it cannot replace the nuanced understanding and empathyrequired in end-of-life decision-making.
This paper evaluates both the potential benefits and limitations of AI in assisted dyingcapacity assessments, considering interdisciplinary perspectives from medicine, law, andethics. It questions whether AI should function as an assistive, rather than determinative, tooland considers current research and the need for strict regulatory safeguards to ensure itsresponsible and ethical use.The question remains whether AI will in the future take a more central role in these life and
death decisions and, more importantly, whether it should.
Karen started her career in a financial institution, before moving to the legal sector and subsequently opting for a career in third level education where Karen combines her financial, legal and lecturing experience. Karen is Head of Faculty of Law and the Professional Law School at Griffith College, where she has lectured since 2011 on a wide range of modules including most recently, Healthcare, Ethics and Law, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Peacebuilding and Reconciliation. Karen’s has completed an MA in Higher Education (2013), LL.M. in Legal Practice (2017) and MSc in Healthcare Ethics and Law (2020) and is currently completing her doctoral studies at Northumbria University and researching the rights of minors to choose assisted dying. Karen is on the Roll of Solicitors in the Republic of Ireland, England and Wales. Karen has presented papers at a wide range of conferences and has also been published.