Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 15:

In page 8, between lines 29 and 30, to insert the following:
“7. (1) It shall be lawful to carry out a medical procedure in respect of a pregnant woman in accordance with this section in the course of which, an unborn human life is ended
where--
(a) the medical procedure is carried out in accordance with regulations under this section,
(b) the unborn is potentially viable outside the womb, the medical procedure employed shall not impede all efforts to sustain life after the complete emergence of the human life from the body of the woman,
(c) regulations under this section shall not contravene current evidence based on medical treatment, or
(d) regulations made under this section shall not come into force without being laid before and approved by each House of the Oireachtas.”.

I accept that I am probably in a minority of one in the committee on this issue. The argument has been made by some people that the reason suicide must be included is because of the X case judgment and that the Government's hands are tied. It is argued that if the Government does not make specific provision for suicide it is in contravention of the judgment in the X case. I made my point on Second Stage that I do not believe this to be the case and I have put forward this alternative amendment that facilitates what I think was the original intention of the Government to legislate and regulate. Section 7 is a facilitating section to allow for regulation to be published and approved by the House to deal with the substantive issues as outlined in the current sections 7 and 8 dealing with emergency medical situations and non-emergency medical situations. It can then remain silent on the substantive issue of suicide. It does not contravene the constitutional determination in the X case. I accept it would not be in tandem with the views of a great many Members of the Oireachtas but I know that many Members have concerns about the suicide provision.

I wish to make specific reference proposals in amendment No. 15. Subsection (d) would allow for approval of the regulations by both Houses of the Oireachtas. This would give the Oireachtas an affirmative role with regard to any regulations to be published. My proposed subsection (c) provides that regulations under the section shall not contravene current evidence-based medical treatment. The consistent evidence the committee received from the witnesses in the hearings did not give any substantive evidence to support the inclusion of suicidal intent in the legislation. I refer the committee to a typographical error in that the word, "on" should not be included. If the amendment is accepted I hope that word can be removed. The Minister in earlier contribution made the point that there is no right to terminate a potentially viable foetus and I accept his point. The Minister of State, Deputy Alex White also clarified that point. This particular phrase in my proposed subsection (b) ensures that this actually happens and is the reason I have included it. If this amendment is not accepted - which is probable - I would hope the Minister would consider the wording in my proposed subsection (b) to be included in the Bill. I have tabled this proposal because of genuine concerns raised by psychiatrists who gave presentations to the committee hearings. Professor Veronica O'Keane made the point that if a woman presents to her with suicidal ideation or suicidal intent she has no choice but to believe that woman and deal with it on that basis because there is no way of disproving what the woman says. That is the reality of the situation.

I accept the evidence based on UK research which shows that one pregnant woman in every 500,000 will die by suicide. However, the difficulty is that quite a substantial number of women can have suicidal ideation and suicidal intent during the course of pregnancy. Research I referenced during Second Stage indicates that in the developed world it can be somewhere between one in eight and one in three, which is a substantial number of pregnancies.