Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

-----but I am saying that only a contorted reading of the proposed amendment could view it as including procedures such as amniocentesis. This line was trotted out by the Minister, Deputy Reilly, at Committee Stage as well. I take the Minister of State, Deputy Alex White's, implication that he himself came up with the idea. It certainly is not a credit to him because subsequent subsections clearly establish that the only categories of medical procedure contemplated by the Bill are those which respond to a real and substantial risk of loss of maternal life as a necessary means of averting such risk and to introduce amniocentesis there as a reason not to make this change - bearing in mind, of course, that it would do no mischief, because the Minister of State is not pointing to any mischief that the use of the word "lost" would import, but is saying, rather, that it might introduce what are, at worst, irrelevancies - or to even claim that, is contorted. It is perverse and I would say it is even a corruption of debate.