Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Capacity to consent is an issue. Could we get some idea if what this entails? My understanding is that where a major decision is being made by someone who has a mental illness, not to talk about being suicidal, it does not stand up in law and he or she would be discouraged from doing it. Abortion is an irrevocable decision which would be recommended.

On a point made about the X case, would the witnesses comment on the progress in psychiatric medical evidence in the last 21 years since the X case? We know the Supreme Court and the High Court got no psychiatric evidence at that stage.

When the obstetricians were in on Friday, they were very strong on doctors being ethically obliged to act on medical evidence. The institute chairman emphasised this in his report to us. Above all, they maintain "do no harm" and the two patient model was something they espoused. The witnesses today all agree abortion is absolutely not a treatment for suicide and I am glad that has been reinforced on the record. That would present a moral dilemma for them in that they will be asked after the decision is made by psychiatrists that someone is suicidal. How accurate is that prediction likely to be? We heard evidence on the last occasion that a British study showed there were 97% false positives.

A woman might present who is 26 weeks into the gestation period and who says she will commit suicide. She may well feel she is going to commit suicide because she wants an abortion, she does not want to have this baby. She is not happy with an early inducement, which does not satisfy her suicidality, she wants an abortion. What would the witnesses do? What would they certify with regard to abortion or inducement?