Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with considering all the evidence in the round. My background is in research and I am aware that one does not just examine one item of evidence and draw a conclusion from it. To deny that there is no up-to-date medical evidence which shows that an unborn baby feels pain is to completely mislead the House. I will identify some patterns from the information available. There is broad agreement that after 26 the unborn feels pain. Some new evidence is emerging which indicates that the unborn feels pain from 17 weeks onwards. It is for this reason that - as a precautionary principle - I included the phrase "where the unborn is sixteen weeks gestation or older" in amendment No. 9. The precautionary principle suggests that there should be no doubt that the unborn may feel pain. As a result of the uncertainty - and just in case - surely the humane and compassionate course of action would be to provide for relief at that moment of the ending of life of an unborn baby. That is what we are doing here.

I spoke to two obstetricians yesterday, one of whom informed me that from 17 weeks onwards the procedure to end the life of a baby involves injecting potassium chloride into the heart. Those who perform such procedures are guided by ultrasound. Within one minute, this causes the baby to have a heart attack. It is the very same lethal injection that is used in executions.