Results 4,421-4,440 of 9,393 for speaker:Alex White

Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Jul 2013)

Alex White: I have nothing further to add.

Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Jul 2013)

Alex White: Amendment No. 19 proposes widening the list of medical practitioners permitted to carry the medical procedure at issue in the legislation. However, other than in an emergency, a termination of pregnancy should be carried out only by an obstetrician or gynaecologist. This strict provision is to ensure that the procedure will be carried out only by highly skilled, qualified and relevant...

Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Jul 2013)

Alex White: The Senator is incorrect if he believes that, in an emergency, the ability to carry out the procedure would be restricted to an obstetrician and gynaecologist. Section 8 provides that the procedure should be carried out by medical practitioner. Oncologists, respiratory physicians and others who may be involved in the care of the pregnant woman were mentioned. Nobody should be concerned...

Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Jul 2013)

Alex White: The purpose of the Bill is not to regulate obstetric procedures, such as the delivery of a viable premature infant, or to change the law of negligence in relation to the practice of obstetrics. I cannot accept the proposed amendments. However, I would observe that normal cover for medical practitioners, through their professional regulatory mechanisms, would apply in such situations. I am...

Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Jul 2013)

Alex White: That question is not germane to this legislation. Most doctors are covered by professional medical insurance. I presume they all have it, so that is the position. I do not know whether the Senator is seeking a broader discussion on medical negligence and professional medical cover but it is not germane to this legislation. It is a general topic of interest but it is not a matter that...

Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Jul 2013)

Alex White: As Senator Keane said, if one looks at the way these amendments are worded, they constitute a blanket exclusion of civil or criminal liability for negligence in respect of circumstances where a viable infant is delivered. It is an extraordinarily severe and strong blanket exclusion of liability that one could conceivably not adopt. Adopting this amendment would also exclude liability in...

Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Jul 2013)

Alex White: Those are the Senator’s words.

Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Jul 2013)

Alex White: It is not a good idea to support the kind of presumption inherent in this proposal that doctors would act otherwise than in accordance with best professional standards.

Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Jul 2013)

Alex White: These are standards upon which we rely and are upheld by the professional colleges. They have been upheld in a way that gives us good reason to rely on them over many generations. At the risk of inflaming some of the points made again and again regarding the overall thrust of this Bill, I must say it is manifestly untrue to state it gives the mother priority over the baby and that only the...

Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (Resumed) (18 Jul 2013)

Alex White: I have nothing to add.

Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) (22 Jul 2013)

Alex White: As was explained on Committee Stage, the aim of the wording included in section 3(1) of the Bill is to ensure the three maternity hospitals and the large public multidisciplinary hospitals in Dublin which are not owned by the HSE will be included in the ambit of the operation of the Bill. Not to include these hospitals would have grave consequences for the safety of women in the Dublin...

Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) (22 Jul 2013)

Alex White: I do not want to say too much more, other than to object to the Senator or anybody else seeking to impugn an exceptional public servant, the director general designate of the HSE, for whom the Minister for Health and I have the highest regard. He is a person of very high integrity and professionalism and I object to the manner in which the Senator has sought to traduce his name.

Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) (22 Jul 2013)

Alex White: The amendment concerns the provision of facilities for the intensive care of newborns in appropriate institutions under the terms of the Bill. As was discussed on Committee Stage, it is not proposed to accept this amendment for the reason that it is not necessary. I am confident that if a newborn infant requires intensive care facilities anywhere in the State, nothing in the provisions of...

Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) (22 Jul 2013)

Alex White: On Senator Ó Murchú's last point, there could be no objection at all to there being careful consideration of the legislation, what it is intended to do or objections raised by Senators to its wording and terms. There is no issue about that and is what Members are here to do. Moreover, it is no less legitimate for a Senator to table amendments that have the effect of altering...

Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) (22 Jul 2013)

Alex White: Perhaps not here, although to some extent, perhaps in one case here. However, in this group of amendments that is largely not the case. However, I believe I am entitled to draw a distinction between the two approaches. As for these amendments, I will respond to amendment No. 16 first, which refers to the wording in the Bill on reasonable opinion and proposes to delete the phrase "as far as...

Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) (22 Jul 2013)

Alex White: Later?

Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) (22 Jul 2013)

Alex White: I am only required to address the amendments in the group. Senator Mullen's and Senator Bradford's amendments refer to the certifying personal and not the doctor carrying out the procedure. Therefore, there is no difference. I cannot see the necessity for the amendment stating "being an opinion which respects the equal right to life of the unborn, and which has regard to the duty to deliver...

Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) (22 Jul 2013)

Alex White: As currently drafted, the Bill places a clear obligation on medical practitioners to ascertain - by the very wording of the section, and Senator Gilroy made this point - whether it is possible to deliver the unborn or, indeed, take other measures that would enable the foetus to be brought to the point of viability before the pregnancy was ended in order to save the mother's life. I remind...

Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) (22 Jul 2013)

Alex White: How many times does that have to be repeated in order for people to understand what we are actually talking about? That is why we are bringing in this legislation. That is the basis upon which it is being introduced to the House. Senator Bradford asked about the question of constitutionality, but ultimately that is not for me to decide. We touched on this the last day. I thank the Senator...

Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) (22 Jul 2013)

Alex White: The Senator referred to an opinion formed on reasonable grounds and in good faith, which has regard to the right to life of the unborn. I would respectfully say, however, that he is probably wrong in thinking that is stronger than a provision that requires the doctor to have regard to the need to preserve unborn life as far as practicable. I actually think that is stronger than the...