Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will contribute briefly to the discussion on the amendments relating to the so-called suicide clauses, or section 9 of the Bill. After the contributions of the Ministers of State, Deputies White and Kathleen Lynch, there is little that I need to say. Anybody listening to either of those contributions should be in favour of maintaining section 9 as proposed in the Bill. It is not often in this Dáil that I agree fully with either of those Ministers of State.

A factor may have been lost in much of the debate about the so-called suicide clauses. The Supreme Court is part of a body which makes law in this country by adjudicating on legislation and cases that come before it. It is already part of the law that suicide is considered and a termination can be granted in the case of suicidal ideation. We need to regulate such a process. Deputy Mathews spoke earlier about emotional framing being used in these arguments to pull at people's heart strings and force them into decisions. I have seen nothing but emotional framing from the pro-life side in this argument.

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