Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)

We will probably not discuss a more emotive issue in the House during the lifetime of the Government. This is a very difficult issue because it goes to the core of what people believe on two levels. First, most people generally believe human life should be preserved. Second, when does the human life we seek to protect start? This goes to the core of humanistic beliefs. We all believe in people's right to protection and we have had many debates about protecting children. We always want to protect their lives and protect them from harm. There is a fundamental, philosophical difficulty: when does life begin? When does the protection of human life begin and in what circumstances is it protected? It is important in this debate that we recognise that people have strongly held views on this issue and that whatever side of the debate they are on, we respect the genuineness of the views of others.

What my colleague has said is true. To a certain extent, this Bill is pre-emptory. The Government has set up an expert group to look at the issue. I hope the group will look at it from every angle and review all the medical evidence available in order that we will have well balanced proposals. I regret the subsuming of the Crisis Pregnancy Agency back into the Department because such an agency can do very good work in counselling and providing supporting as a stand-alone agency. I am not as convinced that there is a financial saving in subsuming it into the Department. There has been too much exaggeration of the financial savings to be made in subsuming such bodies. The agency was able to work outside the Department. There is a need for a halfway house where an agency can be given independence without the need for a huge infrastructure to back it up. That is very important.

I believe very strongly in the concept of protecting human life. That is fundamental. I also believe the child in the womb is a person and that, therefore, there is an obligation to protect that human life. On the other hand, I also believe it is absolutely vital to be non-judgmental about the decisions people might take and utterly supportive of them. However, when it comes to the law, the awkward issue is whether we protect the human life in the womb. Because I believe in protecting in human life, there are two human lives to be protected and what we have to try to do at all times is protect both. I accept that there are others who take a radically different view and do not see the life in the womb as being worthy of the same protection. I respect their views, even though I disagree fundamentally and philosophically with that view from a humanistic point of view because I believe in the protection of human life, my definition of which extends to before birth.

The Bill focuses on the X case and I hope the expert group will looks at all of the issues arising from it. For example, one of the issues that never arose in the Supreme Court which took the facts as given was that there was no psychiatric evidence provided as to whether this was the best or only treatment available to prevent the threat of suicide in the case. I hope the best medical experts will look at this issue once again in the light of the information now available. It is also important to look at the mental health effects of abortion. I understand there have been cases in which there has been a link between post-abortion stress and a person's mental health.

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