Results 13,401-13,420 of 21,128 for speaker:James Reilly

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2013)

James Reilly: In the meantime, the current legal provisions on consent for medical procedures will apply.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2013)

James Reilly: I have no further response to make.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2013)

James Reilly: On the contrary, we are here to protect the lives of both parties; the unborn and the woman. We are very clear on that throughout the Bill, so I do not accept that there will be a change to the Title of the Bill.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2013)

James Reilly: These amendments tabled by Deputy Healy deal with the issue of consent. This issue is also addressed in section 16 of the Bill, which clearly states that the provisions of the Bill will operate within the existing legal provisions in regard to consent for medical procedures. The Guide to Professional Conduct and Ethics for Registered Medical Practitioners of the Medical Council provides...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2013)

James Reilly: The current legal provisions will pertain until the consent and capacity issues are addressed in the new Bill. It is not appropriate for us to address those issues piecemeal through this Bill. The area of consent is a major issue and much work is being done on it. The Bill will come before the Government very shortly.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2013)

James Reilly: These amendments proposed by Deputy Seamus Healy attempt to provide for a lawful termination of pregnancy following a diagnosis of fatal foetal abnormality or inevitable miscarriage. I know several colleagues would have liked to see these and other grounds being included in the legislation. However, these provisions cannot be included. No one can fail but to have sympathy for women who...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2013)

James Reilly: I can respond now. The Minister of State, Deputy White, has laid out very clearly that anything we do must have constitutional certainty. However, there is no constitutional certainty in this regard. Therefore, people believe we would probably need a referendum. This would certainly need to be proven in the courts. There is no doubt that it would be challenged in the courts. I have been...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2013)

James Reilly: I will answer the questions raised. The law likes to deal with certainties. This point is made time and again. That makes it very difficult to deal particularly with inevitable miscarriage because that diagnosis is not always correct. It nearly always is but not always. That raises serious issues in the law, not insurmountable ones but ones that are beyond the scope of this Bill. In...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2013)

James Reilly: I have legal advices from the Attorney General, but it would be better for the Minister of State, Deputy White, to read them out, as he has been dealing with the more technical legal end of this.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2013)

James Reilly: I point out to Deputy Healy who referred to a real and substantial risk to the life of the mother that such risk need not be immediate or inevitable. It is an important consideration when referring to the case in Galway. On Deputy Ó Caoláin's point, we are bound by the decision of the Supreme Court in the X case, the Constitution and the decision of the European Court of Human...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2013)

James Reilly: Amendment No. 5 proposes to add text to the definition of "reasonable opinion" referred to in sections 7 to 9, inclusive, and 13 of the Bill. It refers to circumstances in which medical practitioners would make a decision on whether there is a real and substantial threat to the life of the woman. Given the requirements set out in Article 40.3.3°, practitioners must have regard to the...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2013)

James Reilly: As Deputies Regina Doherty and Peter Fitzpatrick said, Article 40.3.3 includes the words "as far as practicable". They have to stay and I cannot accept that amendment. The test must be met. The test concerns the risk to the life of the mother, not suicidal ideation. It is not about meeting the need but averting the risk to the life of the mother. I am not able to accept the amendments...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2013)

James Reilly: It is on page 6 in the definition of "reasonable opinion". It is defined "in relation to a medical practitioner or review committee, as the case may be, means an opinion formed by the practitioner or committee, as the case may be, in good faith which has regard to the need to preserve unborn human life as far as practicable".

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2013)

James Reilly: I reiterate what I said, neither the mother nor anybody else has a right to terminate the life of a newborn baby, whether that newborn baby is at 26, 28, 32, 38, 40 or 42 weeks gestation. The law here is very clear. The psychiatrist must form an opinion that the risk to the woman's life can only be averted through a termination, not a destruction. It is a termination, not a destruction....

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2013)

James Reilly: The criminal law covers that.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2013)

James Reilly: I need to address these points. Deputy Ó Cuív made a statement that the Bill is about clarifying the practice for doctors. It is not; it is about clarifying the law for them which will aid them in their practice. It is for them, their institutes and the Medical Council to prescribe what best practice is and to inform them, and there is an onus on them to be up to speed. We know...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2013)

James Reilly: We are clarifying the law. I beg to differ. We have made that clear time and again. We are not conferring any new rights, nor are we taking any rights away from anyone. The European Court of Human Rights made it very clear that C was failed by this country because it was not clear to what she was entitled and how she could access it. We know from the medical profession that it is not...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2013)

James Reilly: I assure the Deputy that I absolutely accept the bona fides of his intention here. However, the legal advice is that it would be overly prescriptive and unnecessary to set the matter out in such a fashion. It is implicit in the Bill that what the Deputy is proposing will be normal and reasonable practice. There is no question of a situation arising where a person could attend two...

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2013)

James Reilly: The Bill is crystal clear that a termination will only be performed if it is the only procedure available to avert the risk to the life of the woman. If another option is available and the medical practitioner, instead of opting for it, proceeds with a termination, then he or she will be in breach of the proposed legislation. That is very clear.

Committee on Health and Children: Select Sub-Committee on Health: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Committee Stage (2 Jul 2013)

James Reilly: No.