Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Looking at it legally, it literally begs the question as to what "best medical practice" is in any given situation. The default position must be a presumption by legislators that medical people will act professionally. That must be the default position, rather than the opposite. If we put in "best medical practice", it would be incumbent on us to go further and then start engaging in definitions of what that would be in this or that circumstance. We have an infrastructure for determining what best practice is, Medical Council guidelines and so on. However, including it in the Bill would beg the question and would require more definitions of what it entails and what we believe it should be.

Deputy O'Donnell and I are not medical people and though the Minister is, he is not here as a medical person but as a legislator. Legislators cannot presume to define what best medical practice is, but must rely on what the medical professional bodies determine it to be.