Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

However, the fact is that it is not, and I wish to make a couple of short points. Points were made about the Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act 2013. The Medical Council guidelines relating to that Act state that doctors must do their utmost to protect the mother and baby. We are told those guidelines will not change. They iterate a very strong pro-life view. The issue that has struck me the most is this. Doctors around the country have stated to me that the very basis of their function, the very reason they are practicing, is being radically undermined by the Government. Doctors have said to me that they invested time, energy and money into studying to become doctors in order to protect, nurture and save lives. They have stated that it is unprecedented in their experience for a Government to change the environment of a group of workers so radically, thereby undermining them in their ability to provide services. We know from experience around the world that when freedom of conscience is not properly provided to doctors and medical health workers it leads to certain people leaving the profession. It also leads to certain workers not entering it. Those who operate under those terms suffer burnout more in the long run, because they are constantly in mental dissonance with the work they are involved in.

The Minister has stated that we are simply talking about arrangements for a doctor to pass a patient on to another individual. The key point is this. If I was to arrange for the ending of the Minister's life in the way that this Bill envisions, I would be seen as morally and legally complicit. The doctors we are talking about see an abortion in those terms. They see the unborn child as a living individual human being and therefore as having the same value and worth as anybody else. The fact that they are being told under this legislation that they have to make arrangements for that unborn child to be aborted is a real difficulty for them. These people are crying out for the Minister to take that into consideration.

I heard Deputies Kelleher and Micheál Martin speak. It seems to me that they are looking to dictate to the conscience of doctors. Why have Deputy Martin, Deputy Kelleher and the Minister not sat down with the thousands of healthcare workers?

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