Ms Marie O'Shea:

There is scope to improve the current process because you have to make sure that people have up-to-date knowledge that is in these MDTs. You also have to make sure you have access to the right screening and expertise. That is part of the review that is being carried out by Dame Lesley Regan, who is conducting a review of the operation of section 11 on behalf of the HSE. That is part of the issue but another part of the issue is the writing of the legislation because in a lot of cases you cannot definitively say a foetus will demise before birth or will die within 28 days of being born because there is no definitive list of conditions or sets of multiple conditions that say this is so. There are situations where they think it is highly likely that death will occur but there are also situations where they think there is a possibility that the baby may be an outlier. Something I never thought I would see was a consultant on the verge of tears describing how awful it was to say that to a person where they were pretty sure the baby would die shortly after birth and would have an horrific syndrome but they were not sure enough that death would take place within 28 days, even though they knew death would take place, and that the life in between would be compromised.