Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. In their evidence to the joint committee this morning, both Mr. Brady and Ms Simons stated the heads of the Bill as currently drafted would allow for the termination of life of the unborn baby. They should clarify this point because my interpretation of head 4 is that the consultant psychiatrist must come to a reasonable opinion that there is a risk and that it can only be averted by the medical procedure. However, the definition of "reasonable opinion" states there must be due regard to the need to preserve the unborn life, where practicable. Based on this definition, how can they state it would be legally possible to terminate the life of the unborn baby? I ask them to clarify their interpretation in this regard.

In his initial contribution, Dr. Mills made the point that the threat to life will be on the basis of probability.

We had evidence yesterday from some eminent specialists that a 5% threat to life is a significant threat and in those cases they would feel it was a sufficient threshold for the mother to consider a termination of the pregnancy. I would welcome clarification on that point.

In the C case, which related to a rape victim, the High Court set out a very low threshold on the test for a real and substantial risk of suicide - far lower than is currently drafted in the legislation. Do the witnesses believe that if the legislation is challenged in the Supreme Court or there is an Article 26 referral, it will stand up to the challenge?