James Reilly (Dublin North, Fine Gael)
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I assure the Deputy that I absolutely accept the bona fides of his intention here. However, the legal advice is that it would be overly prescriptive and unnecessary to set the matter out in such a fashion. It is implicit in the Bill that what the Deputy is proposing will be normal and reasonable practice. There is no question of a situation arising where a person could attend two psychiatrists in the morning and have a procedure carried out in the afternoon. That might be what some people want, but it will not happen under these provisions. That is not the intent of the Bill. The provisions make clear that any decision to perform a termination must be based on a reasonable opinion arising from a full assessment of all the circumstances of the case. All the options must be explored, as the Deputy outlined. In some cases, however, it may be very obvious to a psychiatrist, for instance, that there is absolutely no need for a trial of anti-depressants. It would be very wrong to require doctors to inflict anti-depressants on every woman who presents in these circumstances. I hope nobody would suggest it.

I accept the Deputy's bona fides in seeking to ensure that all avenues are explored. There is no issue with that, but the wording has been carefully put together. As I said, I am discussing all of this with the Attorney General. The advice is that we cannot be prescriptive about practice because practice will change. Clinicians must deal with a myriad of clinical situations as they appear before them. The only certainty is that no book can prepare one for every eventuality.