Results 4,181-4,200 of 9,393 for speaker:Alex White

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: I do not believe the Minister intended to give any indication of his intention to-----

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: We will consider what has been said.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: On Deputy Keaveney's point, I fully agree with the Minister's response. There is nothing in section 9 that triggers the Mental Health Act. While I understand the Deputy's point, I do not understand the point that may be being made outside the House that the interrelationship between section 9 and the Act gives rise to some question. It does not do so.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: The issue of involuntary admission is addressed in the Mental Health Act 2001. It is the only law that applies in the case of any individual who is to be subject to involuntary admission. If the conditions or circumstances that are contemplated in the Mental Health Act 2001 apply, a person may well be sectioned. However, there is nothing in section 9 or anywhere else in the Bill that...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: To start on the point the Minister finished on, he is absolutely correct. That the risk does not have to be immediate or inevitable is not embedded in the test that was set out by the Supreme Court. The test set out by the Supreme Court is very clear. I can say with confidence that the test is whether, as a matter of probability, there was a real and substantial risk to the life of the...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: Yes, but it is not part of the test. The Deputy made the point, which was quite wrong, that we are reducing or varying the test or something like that.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: That is not true. I want to address the other points. Deputy Shortall spoke about a concern, if I understand the point, that if a psychiatrist was asked to make a certification and declined to make a certification, would he or she then be in a position where they would have a concern that they might be subject to litigation in the future, having declined to make a certification. The...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: On a point of information-----

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: If I could help the Deputy-----

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: The Deputy is correct when he states that there is a higher threshold with regard to the assessment of suicidality in respect of the assessment of women in the circumstances we are discussing versus the norm. He must, however, examine Article 40.3.3° of Bunreacht na hÉireann which sets out in solemn and clear terms that the State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn, with...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: There are some very clear and fundamental issues which we must bear in mind and these are dealt with in the Constitution. We did not make them up.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: Nobody can make the case that the circumstance, where there is a real and substantial risk to the life of the woman arising from a risk of suicide, would never arise. Nobody can bring that argument home. Whether it is one in 1 million or whatever figure Deputy Mulherin had, I do not know what the likely outturn would be but nobody in this room or elsewhere can say it would never arise that...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: Doctors have to do both. The doctors have a responsibility-----

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: I missed the beginning of Deputy O'Donnell's question. I hope I have got the right question, but this is the answer.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: I will be quick in that regard.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: I think that was an Article 26 reference to the Supreme Court to test the constitutionality of legislation. That would be representation appointed by the Chief Justice to argue for the unborn as a class, not the interests of a particular unborn. It sounds like a crass differentiation, but Deputy O'Donnell will know what I mean. That was to deal with legislation and the same argument cannot...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: That would be to test the constitutionality of a Bill where the lawyers are appointed by the Chief Justice only for the purpose of making that argument.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: What is being advocated here is a representative for an individual actual unborn. In response to Deputy Shortall,-----

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: Okay.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (3 Jul 2013)

Alex White: There are many questions that we can pose on this, but what the Government and the Oireachtas must do ultimately is come up with answers. Deputy Shortall's question was about how the doctor was to make the call. This was the dilemma she reasonably posited. Our answer to that is contained in the legislation. That is the answer to the question. With respect to Deputy Shortall, I would ask...