Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This relates to the heads of the Bill if the Chairman would allow me finish without interrupting me. In the witnesses' opinion is the ability of the State to enforce an abortion against the will of the family covered in the heads of the Bill, and would that be an ethical process?

Second, what limitations, if any, should be placed on a physician's choice of method or technique for abortions either before or after viability? Where the child is not viable, may the physician use a procedure, for example, which would directly end the life of the unborn? I do not want to go into the gruesome details that entails but issues arise such as suction aspiration and dilation and evacuation, D and E, where the child is partially evacuated. Post-viability, even though there are serious risks attached to the health of the child, what is the position with regard to the person performing that abortion, having regard to perhaps a safer method of abortion which would involve the death of the baby as against another method such as induction which might save the life of the baby? Is the Bill clear on that and the ethics attached to it? Third, is there an obligation on us, as legislators, to enact laws that are just?