Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 11 October 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution

Health Care Issues Arising from the Citizens' Assembly Recommendations: Masters of the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street and the Rotunda Hospital

1:00 pm

Dr. Rhona Mahony:

No. It is about clinical care. My point is that one cannot predict a clinical course with precision. Some women will get sick gradually and not very sick. Some will very quickly become very ill. In that context, one is facing performing a termination of pregnancy on a woman who is unstable, has major sepsis and is very ill. That can happen when the membranes have ruptured at 14 weeks when there is little prospect of foetal viability.