Catherine Byrne (Dublin South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I find it very difficult to stand up and question people who are very intelligent and knowledgeable about the law. It is difficult for me as a layperson to take in all that is being said, and I mean that with greatest of respect to the witnesses.

I had to undergo surgery a few months ago and I had to sign a consent form. I signed it in good faith believing that when I was wheeled down to the theatre the people would look after me and do their best. This Bill is very important in that we are entrusting the medical people in our country to look after people who turn up on their doorstep in a mentally distressed state and to act in good faith to protect the mother and the unborn child.

That is my definition of what this Bill is about as a non-medical person or a lawyer. It is what I believe as an individual.

I have a question which I am finding difficult to put into context but I ask the Chair to allow me read two brief extracts from statements provided, one of which is from Mrs. Justice Catherine McGuinness under "unborn". It states:

I accept that this definition is based on the Supreme Court judgement in the Roche case [whatever that was]. However, it should be pointed out that this definition of the personhood of the unborn is not universally agreed.

I read most of Dr. Fletcher's statement but in her contribution earlier she stated: "Foetuses ... are the bearers of biological life and they will be future persons but this is not the same kind of life as that of the breathing, feeling and thinking woman". I find it difficult to formulate my question but would Dr. Fletcher say that the unborn foetus was the same as a living person who has been tragically maimed in a very serious accident where people are brought into a room and told that this person who was living and feeling is now on a life support machine and has been pronounced brain dead? I may have formulated that question wrongly but I am trying to ascertain if there is a difference between the unborn person and that person lying in a bed in intensive care whose family are being told there is no prospect of life and therefore, not wishing to use the phrase, to end their life. I ask the witness to formulate a response to that question.