Dr. Peter Boylan:

I do not propose to say a great deal in response to the comments on hypocrisy and so on in this country because that is not relevant to our discussion on the heads of the Bill. I am happy that the Bill, if enacted with the alterations we are suggesting, will introduce legal clarity and provide protection for doctors, midwives and so on.

The question was raised about access in respect of the decision as to whether a woman is entitled to a termination. There is also the question of access in the case where the decision is that she should have a termination to save her life. We have discussed the issues relating to which hospital and so on and doctors' definition of a specialist register, etc.

Deputy Robert Troy asked why we should separate medical from psychiatric illnesses. I have always felt, like my colleagues Dr. Mahony and Dr. Coulter-Smith, that if a particular procedure is required to save the life of a mother, the reason the procedure is required should not depend on whether the risk to her life is a consequence of a medical condition such as a congenital or complex heart disease or the consequence of an imminent danger that she will kill herself.

An issue we have not covered in great depth is that of conscientious objection, which I propose to deal with briefly. It is important to note that this issue also applies to the mother. We, as doctors, may make a decision that a mother is very likely to die, unless there is a termination of pregnancy, but the woman herself may refuse that termination because she is willing to take the risk or she has a conscientious objection to undergoing a termination of pregnancy. As doctors, we will respect that wish. Likewise, the wishes of doctors and midwives who have a conscientious objection to being involved in a termination of pregnancy will be accommodated. Those of us who have trained abroad, in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, have personal experience of this and not faced any difficulty when it has come to performing terminations of pregnancy, primarily for social reasons in the United Kingdom. There is no problem with this and no need for people to be afraid. Nobody will be forced under this legislation to do anything against his or her conscience. Everybody should be reassured about this. We are adult, professional people.