Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is a point. The Chairman is really too quick off the mark. When did they first decide to become unborn? These are philosophical questions as this is a matter of texture, depth and profoundness. We are here specifically to try to determine clarity in the law and the Constitution with regard to two lives. With the new life, the question is when the life begins, and there is also the question of the host life, or that of the mother. We can argue for days, weeks and months and go into law in different jurisdictions. We have always gone to the English-speaking world but in France in 1975, tight legislation was introduced in this area. We mentioned earlier that in France girls, even those under 16 years old, can go to a general practitioner and have an abortion without the knowledge of parents. That is the reality. We must face up to the question.

The issue highlighted is head 4. The evidence from experts in psychiatry, obstetrics and gynaecology, ethics and law is that where there is no other treatment available for the threat or intent of suicide, there is a legal justification in the proposed Bill that the termination of the life of the unborn is legally allowable. That means the mother would have to have in her intentions the termination of that life. We would be accessories to the termination of a life in order that the host life can be saved when it is not the only possible treatment for that life.