Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 4 October 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution

Eighth Amendment of the Constitution: Constitutional Issues Arising from the Citizens Assembly Recommendations

1:30 pm

Professor William Binchy:

If there was no such premise, there was no point in asking the question. Of course I agree with the court's outcome in that area. The Deputy said I made emotive comments on the matter of disability in the context of the Citizens' Assembly's recommendations. With respect, I did not do so in the sense that it does not matter how one describes it.

The concept of "significant anomaly" means that certain children who have got what used to be called "defects" but are sometimes called "disabilities" should have their lives terminated. That is not hyping or misrepresenting what the Citizens' Assembly said.