Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

If only a good faith opinion is required but there is no reference to evidence-based practice, we are going backwards and not forwards. The primary reason for the changes I am proposing in these amendments is that any reasonable opinion be based on medical grounds alone, and not on any extraneous non-medical considerations.

In the Bill in its current form, there is a remarkable lack of any requirement that medical practitioners should have clinical reasons for their decisions. There is a reference to clinical grounds, but it appears there is a related incongruity. Section 19 requires a certification to contain the clinical grounds for carrying out the medical procedure without any provision in the Bill that requires the medical practitioners involved to have clinical grounds. They must form a reasonable opinion. In a way this makes a nonsense of the use of the word "reasonable" when it is being made subject to a rather out-of-date subjective test, namely, that of perceived good faith. I will leave it at that.