Results 22,521-22,540 of 45,789 for speaker:Simon Harris

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: Yes, genuinely, and we are engaging on this because my stated aim when I published the original Bill was to use the phrase "shortly after birth". I accept that this amendment is different but it was my intention to insert "shortly after birth" to allow the clinicians to understand and interpret that. However, the feedback I got from the medical community and the Attorney General was that...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: I cannot confirm whether there was because I have not put that wording to anyone. I am not certain but my gut instinct is that the likely legal advice would be that it would still require a defined time period but I will certainly inquire further on that.

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: Yes, the lack of a defined time period is the issue. We are all trying to get to the same place but are coming at it from different directions. We are all trying to make sure that doctors are empowered to know what they can and cannot do. My approach to this is that it is of greater assistance to doctors if they know the time period. In terms of the difference between 28 days and 29 days,...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: We must be careful because a number of people have said that then "the 14 year period kicks in" but that is quite a jump. The law will say - and none of us is proposing changes to this part - in your "reasonable opinion" and "in good faith". There is no criminal sanction if a doctor is operating under the heads of the legislation.

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: I am not criticising Deputy O'Connell. I just do not want us to accidentally add to the chilling effect, whereby if we suggest that if a doctor gets a call wrong by a day, he or she will face 14 years in prison. That is not the intention of the legislation.

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: Neither is it the application of the legislation.

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: I would need to hear legal advice that shows that it could happen. If doctors are operating legally under the legislation, using their reasonable medical opinion, they are operating within the confines of the law.

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: Sure.

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: I mean no disrespect but the expert who was before the committee operates in a different jurisdiction. He works in the UK, where the situation is very different.

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: The committee on the eighth amendment made very specific recommendations to the Oireachtas and to me as Minister. It said - as members of this committee are saying now - that it did not want to include foetal abnormality that is not likely to result in a death before or shortly after birth. I hope I am not misrepresenting anyone but the only question being asked here, which is valid, is...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: If it is, then I would be absolutely happy to do that but the evidence available to me is that it is not. I am more than happy to share that information with the committee and to return to the issue on Report Stage, if members wish. The advice available to me at the moment is that this is the best way of providing certainty.

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: It was sent to the health committee. I am sure the committee secretariat could send on a copy. It is not my job to circulate the correspondence of the health committee.

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: It is a letter from 24 obstetricians who are working on the guidelines. In it they make suggestions on how to improve the legislation..

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: Other than the last couple of words the Deputy spoke, there is nothing she said with which I disagree. I am quite sure this legislation will be scrutinised and challenged, line by line and word by word. That is why this Committee Stage debate is different from most of those to which we are used. If we get a word wrong, either by putting it in or removing it, we all know that we run the...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: Yes.

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: And section 17.

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: I will take those questions in the order the Deputy asked them. The first matter he raised relates to the drafting piece, if I may call it that. The drafters inform me that when a word that should be defined is referenced more than once in the Bill, it then appears in the definitions section rather than the specific section. As "viability" appears in section 9 but also in section 17 - and...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: I am sorry; I wrote that down too. The reason that is singular rather than plural, which is a point I came across also, is because each practitioner has to singularly do it. It is still a singular assessment, if the Deputy knows what I mean. The practitioner will have to assess the viability and the other person will also have to assess the viability. From the point of view of drafting,...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: Section 10 states, "A termination of pregnancy may be carried out in accordance with this section where 2 medical practitioners have examined ...", and it lists the reasons, therefore, they are the only circumstances in which a termination of pregnancy may be carried out. In other words, the termination may not be carried out in the other circumstances. That is the legal understanding of...

Select Committee on Health: Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (6 Nov 2018)

Simon Harris: I will be brief. Doctors were asking me, my Department and our clinical advisers whether a baby was viable if it was technically possible to keep a foetus, a baby, alive on some form of equipment or machinery for a very long time. That opens a Pandora's box. Doctors understand very much, as we do, what we mean when we speak about viability and a fatal foetal abnormality. Clearly, we...