Results 841-860 of 1,325 for speaker:Ciara Conway

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

Ciara Conway: I thank the Minister, the Minister of State and the departmental staff for their patience and approach. To echo the words of Deputy Ferris, it is a good day for Irish women, particularly pregnant women and girls. This will give them, their families and the medics who treat them the clarity and security they need. I thank the Chairman, who has been exemplary in his conduct in facilitating...

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

Ciara Conway: To follow on from Deputy McNamara's point, am I right in thinking there is an anomaly? If a pregnant woman is assaulted and her baby dies, there is no criminal sanction for that. That is a bit of an anomaly.

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

Ciara Conway: Yes; maybe the intention is not there. There is one other thing I would like to pick up on. If a doctor refuses to carry out a termination and the woman dies - this may be what Deputy Keaveney was getting at - what penalty is there for the doctor?

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

Ciara Conway: I do not know - for whatever reason.

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

Ciara Conway: There is a somewhat bizarre quality to this discussion. We have a number of Deputies who are advocating against this legislation, as narrow as its provisions are, yet at the same time expressing their dissatisfaction with a particular provision that is very much a reflection of the sanctity of the unborn, as set out in the Constitution. In other words, some of those who are advocating that...

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

Ciara Conway: I think my question has been answered but I am concerned about this point. Does the Minister envisage a case where, if the question is not asked or recorded in some way, a team could be assembled that all have a conscientious objection? How does one weigh up the woman's right to a termination versus a doctor's conscientious objection? If one does not ask the question there could in theory...

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

Ciara Conway: The Bill provides that the report will refer to procedures that have been "carried out". Will the report refer to cases in which procedures were not carried out? If a negative return comes back from both the consulting physicians and the review panel, will that be reflected in the report? Will that information be collected? Will we be able to tell whether there has been a higher...

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

Ciara Conway: I can totally understand what is being said about the words "and-or", but I have a concern where a woman is in a violent relationship and the person who goes in is her husband. I want to be clear that the woman has the choice.

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

Ciara Conway: I just want to be clear on that point.

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

Ciara Conway: I raised this matter on Second Stage in the Dáil. The diagnostic codes are already in place with the HIPE coding. It allows for information to be collected under the pregnancy with abortive outcome heading. The secondary concern which the Minister may have addressed is the inclusion of the Medical Council registration numbers of doctors performing the terminations in the report to the...

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

Ciara Conway: That is what it says. It is stated in section 14(1): The pregnant woman shall be entitled to be heard by the review committee and, where the woman or a person acting on her behalf informs the committee that she wishes to be heard, the committee shall make such arrangements as may be necessary in order to hear the woman or a person acting on her behalf.

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

Ciara Conway: That means either her parent, her partner or her husband.

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

Ciara Conway: Deputy Ó Cuív referred to when a review is sanctioned because the first physicians who saw the woman refused. They equally could have said nothing. The Bill allows for them to give no opinion. If a doctor says nothing, the woman should have the right to proceed to a review. It is not just about the woman being turned down, then proceeding to an appeal and they trying to second...

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

Ciara Conway: Section 13(2) states: "The review committee shall examine...". I understand what Deputy Healy is trying to do in proposing the words "may examine". It would not always be good practice necessarily to conduct a physical examination as it might be counterproductive. I would be interested to hear from the Minister on that.

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

Ciara Conway: Would the results of blood tests and scans not be sufficient in a regular medical case to review it rather than having to physically re-examine the woman? Perhaps the Minister can also satisfy my curiosity about another issue. Will a pregnant woman have to make unnecessary trips in an ambulance to a hospital to be reviewed or will the review committee be brought to the woman? It is an...

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

Ciara Conway: Does the Minister envisage that the requirement to visit the woman would be part of the reviewers' contract? I am more familiar than others with the Higgins report. Consultants will work for a hospital group rather than a particular hospital. I assume the review panels will be formed along the lines of the new hospital groups. It should be incumbent on the members of the panels to travel...

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

Ciara Conway: People may not be aware that there is post-abortion counselling available to women in Ireland. In order to be fair to doctors, this must be stated. The impediment to access to services for some affected women is often the very unfortunate fact that there is a considerable stigma associated with abortion in Ireland such that women do not always feel they can share information with doctors....

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

Ciara Conway: Not all of them were practising psychiatrists.

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

Ciara Conway: On the other side of gestational limits we are talking about a woman's life. What do we do then? What are her rights? Where is her life to come to an end versus the gestational limits? We are talking about saving women's lives.

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

Ciara Conway: I do not believe the message from this committee should instil fear in women who are engaging with maternity services. We need to be careful how we choose our words in what is a sensitive issue for half the population. Deputy Ó Cuív asked if there have been occasions where a doctor has had a conscientious objection to providing a termination when there is a real and substantial...