Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Good evening panel and I thank them for being here. I will direct my first question to Dr. Janice Walshe. It is particularly interesting that C in the ABC case - we are here because of the European Court of Human Rights judgment in that case - was a woman who had cancer. Could Dr. Walshe clarify for the record what is available currently in Ireland for a woman in the position of C? We know she Google-searched what she did not know was available here, and this has given rise to the European Court of Human Rights judgment. Does Dr. Walshe think the public would benefit from an information campaign on what is currently available regarding terminations to save women's lives in this position? How will this Bill change her practice for the better?

My question to Mr. Saunders is around the issue of mental capacity. To make a will, one has to be of sound mind, yet with this Bill essentially we will be certifying a woman who is suicidal, and in that respect she could be considered not to be of sound of mind, to make a final decision about her unborn baby. Does this make sense to him? Does a suicidal woman in his view have the mental capacity to consent to something that is so final and irrevocable as the taking of the life of her unborn child?

What role does Ms Lawrence currently play in psychiatric teams around the care and observation of women who are suicidal in pregnancy?