Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is what we are trying to avoid. We are trying to avoid that extra chilling factor which the doctor might have in cases where there is something medical that could keep a foetus alive but where, as the Deputy rightly says, the foetus would never become a viable baby. That is what we are trying to get to. I am not sure any of us is clear whether we have gotten there. I am convinced that is what this section does and other people, including the Deputy and Deputies O'Connell and Smith, have raised questions about it. That is why I believe there is a clinical element to this. I am putting this in to provide legal clarity for doctors. It only functions if the doctors interpret it in the way we intend it to be interpreted.

On Deputy Coppinger's point, while I would not support it, the Deputy is entirely correct that section 10(1)(b) could just be deleted. It could be done, but I do not believe it is a good thing to do because we told people, I told people, and doctors told people that when a baby is viable in Ireland, that baby will be delivered. Section 10(1)(b) provides that reassurance. Quite frankly, even if it was not in legislation I believe that any master of any maternity hospital would say that is what he or she would do anyway. That is what doctors do. They try to deliver viable babies. Obviously section 10(1)(b) is not replicated in section 11 because if there is an emergency risk to a woman's life or health, the viability test does not apply.