Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I think Senator Healy Eames raised her hand before I did, but I will not look a gift horse in the mouth.
As the House may be aware, this is palliative care week. This is an all-island event and the first of its kind. It is being co-ordinated by the All Ireland Institute for Hospice and Palliative Care and its objective is to increase public awareness of palliative care and greater understanding of when it can be applied. This is a noble initiative that deserves our recognition and admiration, because it promotes a model of care for those suffering from serious illness in a way that respects their human dignity and strives to ensure they achieve the best possible quality of life.
It is worth remembering that the palliative care approach is beneficial for anybody with an incurable illness, regardless of age and including babies that are born with such serious difficulties that they are unlikely to survive. Perinatal hospice care allows parents and baby to make the best of their often brief time together and provides many treasured memories. Support groups like One Day More, which is made up of parents who received poor prenatal prognoses for their babies, agree that this type of care offers the best way forward when coping with such shocking news. It is the only type of care that respects the intrinsic value of the lives of these babies and recognises their worth is not dependent on the quality or length of their time on this earth.
I am not finding fault with the Leader in regard to what we asked for last year but which never happened, but I believe there was a commitment to have a debate on perinatal hospices and the need to extend perinatal hospice care here. We live in an age dominated by the ideology of choice. In recent weeks I have found it distressing to see elements in the media seek with brutal intent to create a wedge to see abortion legalised in those tragic situations of babies that have a short life prognosis or who are doomed to die shortly after birth. This particular media agenda is wrong, tragic and inhumane.
We can counter this agenda by promoting the cause of perinatal hospice units. Such services are only provided on an ad hocbasis in certain hospitals and there are no officially designated care units.