Seanad debates

Thursday, 26 March 2015

Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage

 

10:30 am

Photo of David NorrisDavid Norris (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This would mean that assisted human reproduction would be denied to anyone who is not legally married within the State. They would not be allowed to have it. The Senators are imposing their social views on the majority of the population. I come back to the fact that 36% of births occur outside marriage. People are voting with their reproductive organs and they are ignoring what is being said here. It is about time that Members of this House faced the human reality that is out there and not this theological theorising that is going on all the time. "A person shall not perform a DAHR procedure other than on the request of intending parents who are legally married to one another." I am astonished. When I read that, I could hardly credit what I was seeing, that in order to get access to DAHR, a couple must be married to each other. These are the same people who oppose marriage equality, "You have to be married in order to have a child, but you can't be married". Come on. For God's sake. Let us have a bit of logic and just a tiny bit of humanity, a tiny bit of understanding of the human realities behind these things and not just this absurd, monotonous theologising about the whole thing.

While I am at it, would the Minister be able to look into the Iona Institute? I think it could bear a little-----

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