Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is extremely serious that I am being barracked in this manner when I am trying to explain a point, as we are all entitled to do.

Section 9 makes it necessary that a doctor be protected and mandated, as other amendments propose, to ensure that a child capable of being born alive is not destructively aborted. It is for this reason that the words "may be" matter so much.

For the sake of consistency, it is important to answer Senator Thomas Byrne's point that sections 7 and 8 would confer a similar protection on doctors. Were it only about section 7 or 8, it would not be such a problem because under these two sections there would be no question of an intent to take the life of the child as a doctor helping a mother in a medical emergency also wants to save the baby. That is the answer to Senator Thomas Byrne's objection and it is relevant to our understanding of the amendment I have proposed.