Dr. Caitriona Henchion:

Without question the criminal sanctions in the law have a chilling effect. To be perfectly honest, I cannot see why anybody inserted a 14-year prison sentence unless one wanted it to have a chilling effect. That seems obvious. As a group, doctors are very anxious about anything that would damage their reputation in any way. Being associated with potential criminal charges, even if one is not sent to prison, is a huge threat and definitely influences people in the way they manage consultations. It means that instead of a doctor being comfortable and free in his or her discussion with somebody one is continually, in one's mind, trying to be guarded and careful about anything one might say that could possibly be interpreted as not being in keeping with the law. Decriminalisation would take away that layer yet one still can have lots of ethical and clinical guidelines. The Medical Council is still in a position to sanction doctors who have been found to have behaved inappropriately. It should not mean that people think doctors will somehow behave badly if there is no criminal sanction. Decriminalisation will allow doctors to have a freer conversation with the woman in that position.