Ms Breda O'Brien:

I will deal first with Deputy Conway's question on allowing women to access life-saving choices. That is exactly what I would really love the Oireachtas to legislate for. Do Members have such a certainty that they can legislate on the grounds of suicide as life-saving, given the evidence that - having had abortions - some women continue to be suicidal and some tragically succeed? That is what I would offer to the committee. There is no medical evidence to suggest that it is in any way helpful. The closest people have come is to state that it just might be part of a package. One cannot actually legislate on those grounds.

I will leave it to the greater expertise of the psychiatrists and doctors present to deal with other situations as to what would actually change. However, I will provide a lay woman's opinion on what might actually change. We are social creatures and we respond to social norms. When something is legalised, it is a far bigger educator than I ever will be in a classroom and it will have a far bigger impact because it is stating that this is permissible and possible and that our minimum moral value now sits a little lower than used to be the case. As a result of the fact that we are social creatures, that has an impact and it is a change in culture. That is what we are talking about. It is very serious. We have seen the impact of changes of culture in other areas, in the tragic area of suicide and in many other areas. What we are speaking about is very serious.

Would it be okay for Ms Steen to comment on this?