Results 741-760 of 1,954 for speaker:John Gilroy
- Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Jul 2013)
John Gilroy: Yes, we did and I will explain it.
- Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Jul 2013)
John Gilroy: The record of the House will show that three Senators agreed with me last night.
- Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Jul 2013)
John Gilroy: It is very important.
- Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Jul 2013)
John Gilroy: We have established that there are some circumstances - horrible, hateful and very challenging - where it is necessary. I can point to a particular illness which might jog one's memory. I will not identify the illness because there are people who are possibly suffering from it and, unlike Senator Jim Walsh, it would be offensive for me to nearly name-check them. There is an illness...
- Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Jul 2013)
John Gilroy: It is a healthy baby in an otherwise healthy woman.
- Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Jul 2013)
John Gilroy: It relates to the reason section 9 should stand. Despite the fact that Senator Jim Walsh called me an abortionist, he and I agree on this. Despite his mighty rhetoric of being more pure than me, we agree that abortion is sometimes necessary. All we disagree on are the circumstances in which it is necessary. I will quote from a paper delivered at the public hearings on behalf of Professor...
- Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Jul 2013)
John Gilroy: It is an ideological argument.
- Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Jul 2013)
John Gilroy: The Senator is entitled to take an ideological view, but he is not entitled to ignore the medical evidence. When she was here, Senator Fidelma Healy Eames made a point on amendment No. 9 and Senator Jim Walsh-----
- Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Jul 2013)
John Gilroy: On amendment No. 9, Senators Brian Ó Domhnaill, Jim Walsh and Rónán Mullen agreed with the proposer of the amendment that we must move towards the precautionary principle. As Dr. Ferguson says there is no evidence for or against it, let us use the precautionary principle here. If we say it will never happen, so much the better. It would be fantastic if it never happened, but...
- Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Jul 2013)
John Gilroy: When we descend to this clownish behaviour on the part of my esteemed friend on the far side of the House, we know his argument is beaten. There are two problems with section 9, if we do not accept suicide as a legitimate reason. One is that we have different attitudes to mental illness. Some people do state mental illness, including suicide, is a very serious problem. Others have a...
- Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Jul 2013)
John Gilroy: Senator Ó Domhnaill eloquently quoted from many reports that abortion does not decrease the risk of suicide.
- Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Jul 2013)
John Gilroy: Yes, to support that contention. However, Senator Ó Domhnaill omitted three small words which change the entire complexion of the point and undermines his entire argument and credibility along with it. If we were to add, “Abortion does not decrease the risk of suicide in individual patients”, it would change the entire complexity of the argument. We do not know if it...
- Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Jul 2013)
John Gilroy: The Minister of State, Deputy White, asked us to be less selective with our quotations and instead gather the evidence, weigh it and measure it, look at in the round and make a decision on it. Senator Ó Domhnaill has failed on all of these criteria. I contend that not alone will he not agree with me but he will not even understand me. Senator Walsh also vigorously opposes section 9....
- Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Jul 2013)
John Gilroy: He uses the words “evil” and “conscience”. He draws on evidence from an individual he called “a renowned authority”, Dr. Pravin Thevathasan, who happens to be an acknowledged quack.
- Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Jul 2013)
John Gilroy: It is most dispiriting to have to listen to this level of debate. This is the third time we have been through it.
- Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Jul 2013)
John Gilroy: The people whom Senator Ó Domhnaill dismisses as quacks or whatever he calls them, include the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in the UK and the American Association of Obstetricians. These are the most renowned people working in the field. They state very clearly -----
- Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Jul 2013)
John Gilroy: There is constant cackling when a speaker says something that others do not agree with or do not accept. We are all looking for some respect in dealing with this matter rather than playing havoc-----
- Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Jul 2013)
John Gilroy: We are constantly playing the ad hominem argument in this House. Speakers play the man when they cannot think of something to put up as a reasonable argument. Does my point need proving? We are making the very best case for the abolition of this House, no question about it. I go home from these debates-----
- Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Jul 2013)
John Gilroy: Is it any wonder that I would vote for it? This is the sort of nonsense that passes for debate in this House. There is scant regard being paid to any evidence. We are talking about foetal pain which is a terrible and awful concept. We are being accused of not having compassion. Yet, the word, thalamus-limbic has not even been mentioned, which the highest authorities in the field of...
- Seanad: Protection of Life During Pregnancy Bill 2013: Report Stage (Resumed) and Final Stage (23 Jul 2013)
John Gilroy: If a foetus cannot feel pain for 23 weeks and Senator Burke has said that it is impossible to administer anaesthesia to a foetus at 16 weeks, why are we talking about an amendment that proposes 16 weeks? It might be reasonable to propose an amendment to administer anaesthesia at 22 weeks but it is preposterous to talk about 16 weeks. It is illogical, even by the Senator's own argument. If...