Professor William Binchy:

On the point about regulation or legislation, what the European Court decision requires is clarity. Clarity and, indeed, that right of appeal that I mentioned, can both be provided without any legislation simply by a ministerial non-statutory scheme - for example, by the Medical Council, with as much detail as anybody would want. I again stress the fact that this legislation has not an ounce or iota of detail in terms of specificity or in terms of medical treatment. Therefore that can be done. It would also be perfectly possible for legislation, a facilitating Act, to be passed providing that the Minister for Health shall make regulations dealing with safety considerations during maternal pregnancy and some greater specificity in terms of what the Minister does concerning guidance regarding best practice.

Picking up on what Senator Crown said about best practice, it is guided by consensus but also open to new medicine as well as established old medicine. Senator Crown made two points.

The first was a point with which the legislators clearly would disagree - and have in practice disagreed - which is that simply because the Supreme Court has decided a particular matter, this means the legislators and people in general in the community must comply with that decision and do nothing about it. They must not think critically or think about the possibilities of a new way forward. A number of Supreme Court decisions have been so obviously and immediately bad, it was necessary to introduce a pretty immediate constitutional change. I will mention one in respect of adoption approximately 35 years ago, when members might remember the Supreme Court came to a particular decision and this course of action became necessary immediately in the light of that decision. While it was a relatively non-controversial, technical point about the nature of adoption, a constitutional change was put forward immediately. Senator Crown also made the point that as we have had two referendums, surely we are too tired to have a third. With respect, that is rhetoric, rather than actual sound, sophisticated historical analysis. As the pro-life campaign opposed the 1992 referendum, the very opposition from which Senator Crown seeks to derive support came in substantial part from our side of that particular argument. If I might also mention 2002, again-----