Dr. Peter Boylan:

There is much to cover. Will the legislation force us to do anything against best medical practice? No. With regard to two psychiatrists and one obstetrician having an input into the decision and the patient decides, the patient decides within the law and we also decide within the law. When this legislation is enacted we will all have to work within the law. There is no question about that. There is a huge variety of different experiences. Unquestionably, many women are damaged by termination of pregnancy, and many women are damaged by not having a termination of pregnancy. That is life. Life is messy and we as obstetricians and doctors see all the shades of human experiences. There is a wide spectrum and one cannot just focus on a single particular group.

This Bill is about the protection of life. People have different opinions about the inclusion of foetal abnormality, rape, incest and so forth. However, the terms of this Bill are very straight and we should not get into discussing other issues in this environment. Archbishop Martin's letter referred to the possibility of a baby being left to die or a baby being killed. Those two would be criminal offences. There is no question about that. Everybody must be reassured on that. He raised the question perhaps hoping for clarification of this issue in a public forum. I am very happy to clarify that for the archbishop.

We have dealt with the question of pre-term birth. On the chilling factor and the 14 year jail sentence, I do not have a problem with doctors being held responsible for making illegal decisions regarding termination of pregnancy. That must stay on the Statute Book. No doctor has a problem with that as far as I am aware. I do have a problem with a woman being criminalised if she follows medical advice. I think that is fundamentally wrong and unfair, particularly if she has the constitutional protection of this country if she goes to the UK and has the same procedure. It just does not make sense.

There was a question about the law of unintended consequences and the fear that there would be a very liberal regime of termination of pregnancy as a result of this legislation. The figure of one in 500,000 has been introduced into the debate. That is a woman who commits suicide in the UK, which has a very liberal regime and where there is very easy access to termination of pregnancy, effectively on request. We will never be able to answer the question of how many women would commit suicide in this country if termination of pregnancy was not available because it is available. It is just available in the UK. Therefore, we will never be able to answer that question.

However, it appears that genuine suicide risk in pregnancy is extremely rare. We must trust our professional colleagues in psychiatry who assess this risk on a daily basis. The committee will hear evidence on Monday from experts in psychiatry and I urge the members to listen to the balanced opinions that will be put forward that day, and not to be swayed by ideological opinions. We were asked if we would ask a psychiatrist to delay a termination if the duration of the pregnancy was 20 weeks. We are obliged under this legislation to take due care to do all we can to preserve the life of the baby. It is not a question of a psychiatrist rolling up and saying we should terminate a pregnancy without any discussion between us. We do not act like that. It is not a professional way to behave and we do not behave like that. These will be joint decisions taken in consultation with our psychiatric colleagues, whose opinions we respect and trust.

With regard to the State getting things wrong, I am not sure that is relevant to this. I have made reference to head 19. I do not believe a woman should be criminalised. Yes, everything must be done to save life. That is what this Bill is about; it is about saving lives, which is why it is called the protection of life during pregnancy Bill.

The question has arisen about women being coached to fool experienced professional psychiatrists to believe that they are genuinely suicidal. We have to trust psychiatrists. They are not going to be fooled. They are well able to recognise women who are attempting to pull the wool over their eyes. I do not think there is any question of a psychiatrist in this country being fooled by somebody setting themselves up. Undoubtedly, there will be mischievous people who will try to trick them into the belief that they are suicidal when they are probably not even pregnant in the first place. However, our psychiatrists are a smart bunch of people. They will recognise those women when they walk in and they will be able to deal with it. Do not worry about that.