Kate O'Connell (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The discussion on this has been a good one. I see completely where the Minister is coming from. The 28 day period is a sort of line in the sand. We heard a lot of evidence at the committee about the complexity of fatal foetal abnormality. It may not involve only one serious neural tube defect such as anencephaly, which is an obvious fatal foetal abnormality. One could have a number of genetic and physical conditions overlapping and we could not legislate for every permutation. We had those discussions at the committee on the eighth amendment. I remember Fergal Malone speaking about viability at 500 g and twin pregnancies and all of that. I can understand why this is here. We need to get the best legal advice on it as we do not want to end up in the following situation. If a woman has a fatal foetal diagnosis at her 23-week scan and that diagnosis is of a 100% fatal prognosis due to anencephaly combined with heart defects, and the family decides to go through with the pregnancy, it might happen that the child is born and survives for 29 days. It could happen. I am concerned, therefore, about defining the time period. Could the people who advised that this was a fatal abnormality be sued because the baby lived 29 days? What if the mother has the discussion with the doctor? Do we have to bring the father into it? We have to be very careful. As a result of the committee's proceedings and while we will never cure anencephaly, I am against prescribing anything overly restrictive in legislation, especially with advances in other fields. I acknowledge that the Minister has considered this and that his intentions on 28 days are completely honourable and on the side of the removal of the eighth, but we need to ensure we do the right thing and avoid unintended consequences again.