Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 2 amends the definition of "nurse" to include reference to the relevant section to the Nurses and Midwives Act 2011 to assist with interpretation.

Amendment No. 3 amends the definition of "pathologist" to ensure it captures trained and qualified pathologists who may not be registered in the specialist division of the register of the medical practitioners under the speciality of pathology but who have the required training and expertise to preform post-mortem examinations. Previous texts would have excluded pathologists such as, for example, forensic pathologists for whom there is not a medical speciality on the register. A pathologist means a registered medical practitioner who is qualified by virtue of their training and expertise to perform post-mortem examinations.

Amendment No. 6 amends section 23 to take account of the conditions that must be met in the context of non-directed altruistic donors for reason of clarity and to align with the policy intention that a donor will not be able to discriminate in terms of the organ they have. To be clear, altruistic donation can be directed to an individual, be it a family member or somebody known, but if it is a blind altruistic donation, what we are not allowing is to say that an organ can only be for a man or a woman, or only for an Irish person or whatever. If it is a general donation, we cannot specify different categories of people who may or may not be eligible.

Amendment No. 12 amends the definition of "stillborn child" in order that it will have the same meaning as it has in section 2 of the Civil Registration Act 2004 to ensure alignment with existing legislation.

Amendment No. 13 updates section 40(1)(c) to emphasise that consent is only for the purposes of that consent. We are also inserting a new paragraph (d) to clarify that additional consent is not needed for subsequent use of materials for the same purpose but will be needed to be obtained for any secondary use that is different from the purpose included in the original consent.

Amendment No. 15 amends section 40(1)(i) to link provision back to regulations that are to be introduced under section 39. This will set out conditions for the management and the return of material removed during post-mortem examinations.

Amendment No. 24 inserts a new subsection (2)(c) into section 41. Its purpose is to provide for a definition of "part of a body" in this part of the Bill.

Amendment No. 30 amends section 42(4), which prohibits the removal of a part of the body during a post-mortem examination other than the part of the body in respect of which consent was given. We are doing this by deleting the phrase “within the meaning of this section” and replacing it with “indicated in that behalf under section 40(2)(b) as likely to be removed”. This links it into the consent general provisions which detail the information that must be given in order for consent for a post mortem to be obtained.

Amendment No. 39 is a consequential amendment to section 43(a). It deletes the phrase "cause of death" and replacing it with "the medical cause of death". We are doing this to further differentiate between non-coronial post-mortem examinations and a post-mortem examination directed by a coroner.

Amendment No. 40 is a consequential amendment to align section 44(1)(b) with other consent provisions in the Bill. The obtaining of consent can be undertaken by a designated healthcare worker as per relevant sections in the Bill. It is for the pathologist or the doctor under the supervision of a pathologist to check that consent is in place. This will provide due diligence for the conduct of non-coronial post-mortem examination or activities.

Amendment No. 41 amends section 44(2), which relates to the assistance in conduct of post-mortem examinations, to provide further clarification on who can provide technical or clinical assistance in the conduct of a non-coronial post-mortem examination and to ensure that such assistance is provided by someone with relevant qualifications or training to provide this assistance. The purpose of this amendment is to ensure that pathologists can continue to be supported by professionals, such as anatomical pathology technicians or designated medical scientists, in the conduct of their work.

Amendment No. 48 amends section 46(2) by replacing the word “adult” with the term “family member”. This is just to correct a typo in the previous version of the Bill.

Amendment No. 67 amends section 49 by inserting a new subsection (12) to provide clarification on who qualifies as a person in charge of a hospital for the purposes of this part of the Bill.