Mr. Patrick Carr:

On the question of whether we want a referendum and the reason we would want a referendum, it relates to the deep problems with the suicide provision of the X case ruling. That is a problem that has been recognised for the past 20 years. It is the main reason the X case has not been legislated for and various attempts have been made by successive Governments to remove that problematic element.

It is not unique to Ireland that a supreme court would make a faulty decision. I mean no disrespect to the court. It was faced with an extremely difficult case and I do not envy the task it was given. Supreme court decisions from other countries were subsequently recognised as being deeply flawed and repudiated. In the United States, for example, the Dred Scott decision in the middle of the 19th century upheld the principle of slavery. The Buck v. Bell decision in the 1920s justified forcible sterilisation of women judged to be unfit and, more recently in the United States, the Roe v. Wade decision which has not been reversed although the previous two decisions have been reversed. What those three decisions have in common is that they introduced the idea that some people are less equal than others and that some lives are less valuable than others. That is the same principle that informs the suicide provision of the X case decision, namely, that in certain circumstances the life of the unborn may be deliberately targeted.