Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 10, between lines 31 and 32, to insert the following:" "birth certificate" means a document issued under section 13(4) of the Act of 2004 in respect of an entry in the register of births;".

On Committee Stage, I indicated my intention to refine certain definitions. This group of amendments provides for changes to the definitions which apply throughout the Bill. The purpose of the amendments is to provide for additional clarity and certainty. Amendment No. 3, in particular, provides a new definition of "donation facility". This is to ensure that if gametes are donated to a facility which deals with donation but does not provide other donor assisted reproduction services, this does not preclude the use of these gametes by facilities in the State. Amendments Nos. 10 and 11 are direct consequential amendments to this new definition.

Amendment No. 6 provides a technical redraft of the definitions of the terms "intending mother" and "intending parent". The purpose of this change is to make it obvious that only the intending mother can request a medical procedure to be carried out on her. The other intending parent consents to being a parent of a child born as a result of the procedure but does not request the procedure.

Amendment No. 7 clarifies the definition of the term "relevant donor". Amendments Nos. 4 and 5 make some linked changes to the definition of the term "donor". This was necessary because on some occasions where an embryo is donated, a donor of the embryo for whose use the embryo was originally formed may or may not himself or herself have a genetic connection with the embryo. Only the information of a relevant donor, being a donor who provided a gamete used in forming the embryo, should be recorded on the national donor-conceived person register. Amendments Nos. 13 and 16 are direct consequential amendments to this new definition.

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