Dr. Trevor Morrow:

As the Moderator indicated, we as a church do not believe it is our responsibility to prescribe or even to advise the Oireachtas as to how to respond to the expert report as to whether it should follow guidelines, legislation or a constitutional amendment. We see rather our role as seeking to provide an ethical framework within which any future decisions might be made.

Already this morning we have heard what would be described as the classic status quo position within the State - that the medical profession must, in every circumstance, must choose what is right. That is the only option that it has so when it is confronted in those exceptional circumstances with the life of the child and the life of the mother, the medical profession will seek - as I hope it would - to preserve both lives. However, as one seeks to preserve the life of the mother, the life of the child perhaps will die in the process. It is a passive acceptance in choosing what is right. We recognise, however, that there are circumstances - and there will be in the future as the medical profession has already indicated - in which one is confronted in a broken messy world with two things that are wrong.

As the medical profession has already indicated, one is confronted at times, in a broken, messy world, with two things that are wrong. It is wrong to allow a mother to die and it is wrong to take the life of a child, but in such circumstances, it may be necessary to choose what is least wrong - that is, the lesser evil. That will be particularly true when one is dealing with circumstances in which there is not an immediate and imminent threat to the life of the mother. That, we believe, is a foundational ethical principle that ought to be considered by the Oireachtas.