Seanad debates

Thursday, 26 March 2015

Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage

 

10:30 am

Photo of Fidelma Healy EamesFidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The law currently only recognises the woman who gives birth to the child as the mother but the legislation proposes to change this. Commissioning parents here will become legal parents. There is an unacceptable blurring of biological lines to enable legal definitions to fit. This distortion of family will inevitably only serve to complicate matters for children as they grow up and we must remember at the end of this process the purpose of AHR, which I support for married and stable cohabiting couples. We also must be careful about carefully regulating situations that we may now legislate for.

I refer to where Ireland stands in comparison to other countries. Only married male-female or stable unmarried male-female couples may access AHR in Germany, Austria, Italy, France and Switzerland. Single women and lesbian couples can access AHR only in Ireland. Use of donor sperm is only exceptionally allowed in-----

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