David Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is very much welcome that the Title of the Bill includes the words "protection of life" as it provides space for the many of us in the Oireachtas who are strongly pro-life and also strongly pro-choice. It is a timid step and very little, very late. I regret that it does not deal with fatal foetal abnormality, incest, rape and the health of a woman. If it was the health of a man, there would quite a difference.

I was very concerned by a letter by the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr. Martin, which I took very seriously and raised as I was so concerned. I raise it again in the context of some of the comments made which I may have misinterpreted but which seem to constitute a general suggestion that as a result of the Bill a pregnancy might be terminated and the child or the foetus born left to die or deliberately killed. That horrified me and I raised the issue on the Order of Business. I have learned a lot today and would like to know if I would be correct to say the termination of a pregnancy does not automatically mean the termination of the life of the foetus or the child. I would like to be able to mention this next week in the Seanad. It is vitally important for the way the Bill is treated.

I address a question to Dr. Coulter-Smith who raised two interesting hypothetical questions - one on the delivery of a baby at 25 weeks and the second on delivery at 20 weeks and the consequences for the health of the child through cerebral palsy or whatever else. He raised this issue in the context of suicidality, but would it not also be the same ethical question if it occurred in the case of a sudden medical emergency, the worsening of a cancer or the onset of a dangerous heart condition?