Dr. Seán Ó Domhnaill:

I had better respond to the question about why I might have concerns about head 4 in relation to the assessment of colleagues who might deem people as being suicidal and who might be prepared to sign off on forms that would allow them to travel for abortions or to have abortions because of mental health issues. Quite honestly, the reason is that I have worked in other jurisdictions and in the very first jurisdiction in which I worked where abortion was legal, which was Jersey in 1997, I saw consultant colleagues at that time who signed off in advance. I remember one particular individual who had a pile of forms pre-signed, and the reason for that simply was that the ideology of that individual was completely pro-choice and they had so little regard for the unborn child or for the rights of the unborn child. My concern is that we would reduce the value of the life of the unborn, as this Bill seeks to do for the first time ever. This is the first time legislation seeks to allow any human being in this country to be killed. That is how serious this is. We outlawed the death penalty. The only person at risk in this country at the moment of having a death warrant signed is an unborn child.