Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like to clarify my position on my amendment No. 27. I absolutely welcome the provisions under sections 7 and 8 and, as far as I am concerned, there should be no question whatsoever of risking the life of the mother in the circumstances covered by sections 7 and 8.

The issue I have sought to address, which was raised at the committee hearings and on Committee Stage of the Bill and did not receive a satisfactory response, is that raised by the medical profession in respect of a woman who presents as being suicidal when the unborn is close to or just past the point of viability and where the doctor needs to make a call on the competing rights of the woman and the unborn. That poses a difficulty for the medical profession in a situation where there is no evidence to show that termination is a treatment for a person with suicidal ideation or intent and where there is a clear understanding on behalf of the doctor concerned that termination of a pregnancy in those circumstances, at that point of gestation, is highly likely to result in a significant disability for the child. I believe those legal and ethical issues which the medical profession raised have not been addressed. In those circumstances there are options for the doctor concerned to offer therapeutic treatment which has to be weighed up in terms of its ability to address the woman's suicidal ideation and which might also preserve the life of the unborn to a point when the risk of damage to that unborn child is minimised. That is the kind of very difficult legal and ethical call that doctors say is impossible for them to make without a gestational limit.

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