David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The current draft of the Bill provides that children in very limited circumstances can participate in AHR, for example in egg donation, where a procedure or a progressive disorder - that is the terminology that was used in the original draft – is likely to cause infertility. As the Minister said, these amendments remove the references to "progressive disorder". I hear what the Minister is saying that the advice he got is that it is more appropriate to make that decision based on the treatment rather than the disorder or the disease but will he explain why that is the case and the rationale for the advice? I ask because when I first saw the original draft, I was happy enough. It made sense to me. I would like to get a greater understanding of what the logic was of removing “progressive disorder”. The Minister has said that it is advice coming from the HSE but I do not think the thinking or rationale behind this has been properly explained. Why would it not have been possible to leave in the words “progressive disorder”? What was the compelling argument to take that out?

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