Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 16:

In page 8, to delete line 34, and in page 9, to delete lines 1 and 2 and substitute the following:"(ii) in their reasonable opinion (being an opinion formed on reasonable grounds and in good faith which has regard to the right to life of the unborn), that risk can only be averted by carrying out the medical procedure,".

This is an important amendment. It proposes the deletion of section 7(1)(a)(ii) and its replacement with the words "in their reasonable opinion (being an opinion formed on reasonable grounds and in good faith which has regard to the right to life of the unborn), that risk can only be averted by carrying out the medical procedure". My amendment proposes two changes to the wording of the subsection. I am including an additional ground for the reasonable opinion. I understand that reasonable opinion, where one qualifies it as formed on reasonable grounds, tightens any legal interpretation of it. Where subsection (1)(a)(ii) states "which has regard to the need to preserve unborn human life as far as practicable", I propose the insertion of the words "which has regard to the right of life of the unborn". My motivation for doing that is that I am using the words that are in the Constitution, namely, "the State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn". I seek to have those changes made for the reasons I mentioned.