Seanad debates

Thursday, 26 March 2015

Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage

 

10:30 am

Photo of Frances FitzgeraldFrances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Senators for their comments on this amendment. I will make a number of points. On Second Stage, I explained that, in this Bill, we were dealing with some of the parentage aspects in respect of AHR. There is no doubt that broader legislation on AHR and DAHR is necessary. A vast range of relevant issues require it. I have worked closely with the Department of Health to ensure that the Bill's measures are congruent with its policy approach to the forthcoming legislation on AHR.

In terms of the treatment process rather than the parentage issues, access to treatments, consent and counselling, gamete and embryo donations, surrogacy, posthumous assisted reproduction, and genetic screening of embryos for medical purposes and associated research are complicated matters. This is why, following permission received from the Government a couple of weeks ago to develop a scheme on AHR, the Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, has stated that there will be a consultation period.The heads of that Bill will be developed in the course of this year, and there will be a very significant consultation process. The point is there are certain aspects of assisted human reproduction and donor-assisted human reproduction that are dealt with in this legislation with respect to parentage, but I am not saying to the House that this is the entire range of issues relating to assisted human reproduction, many of which have been raised by Senators absolutely legitimately. They are areas that need legislation.

With this legislation, we are moving from a position where there is no regulation. There are currently clinics operating in this country where practitioners are working according to medical guidelines and ethics, making some reports to Europe. Not all the clinics are reporting. There is effectively an unregulated sector, which raises many issues. There is no question about that. The Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction indicated in 2005 that the area was in need of regulation. As I was developing the Children and Family Relationships Bill, I felt it appropriate to deal with certain aspects of parentage relating to assisted human reproduction and donor-assisted human reproduction. I indicated on Second Stage yesterday, and indicated repeatedly on previous occasions, that we have considered how to improve the system so that children born as a result of assisted human reproduction and donor-assisted human reproduction can have access to identity and there are very clear consents from those who make donations. I indicated that we will move from anonymous to identifiable donations, which is a critical child-centred approach. The legislation is child-centred and protects those children's rights. That is what we are doing in the legislation. We are making it very clear what the clinics must do with regard to consents and information. We have suggested keeping a national register of donor-conceived persons so a child can have the information as he or she grows older. Of course, the parents can at any point give the information they have, as clinics provide much information to anybody who uses their services about the donor. Just as with a child who is adopted, the parent is in a position on an ongoing basis to give information to the child from the very beginning. That would be best practice and the right course of action.

The reality is this area has been shrouded in secrecy. There has been stigma in this area, in the same way as there has been stigma attached to adoption. It is clear from discussions with various groups and my research in the area that there is work to be done culturally, socially and practically in this area so that couples who use fertility treatments understand issues around the best interests of the child. As parents, I am sure most of them do that anyway, as they care about their children and want to do their best. From a public policy perspective, we are now making it clear that consent issues are important, as well as access to genetic information. We are putting that as a central provision.

The approach being put forward is in line with that in many jurisdictions, including certain Australian states, Sweden, Denmark, the UK, Belgium, Canada, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Latvia, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Spain. They all have legislation very similar to what is being proposed here. This is not legislation that has been plucked from obscurity without serious consideration. The policy issues have been thought through carefully by the Department of Health's bioethics section, as I accept there are serious ethical issues relating to the area we are discussing today. I have outlined the policy position of the Department of Health on assisted human reproduction and donor-assisted human reproduction, and this will be further developed in the broader assisted human reproduction legislation.

I will discuss the amendments in detail, but there is an important context to speak about. There are 300,000 people affected by infertility or sub-fertility matters in this country. Some of these people are in married families, some are single and some are cohabiting. It is a very serious issue of our time, and we need to consider the myriad of issues that go with access to the variety of treatments and technologies that are increasingly available. We must examine the realities of what we know from census data about Irish family life, as we are not making constitutional change but giving legal protection to diverse family types, particularly the children in those family types. There were 215,000 lone-parent households in Ireland in 2011, with 4,000 same-sex couples living together. Of the 115,000 divorced or separated women, 66% were living with their children on their own. There were 49,000 households of cohabiting couples with children under 15. A relevant statistic in terms of a changing family culture in Ireland is that the number of children living in households headed by cohabiting couples increased by 41% between 2006 and 2011.

The purpose of the amendment is to confine the assignment of parentage in donor-assisted human reproduction to the birth mother and her husband. It would not be possible to assign parentage to the civil partner or the cohabiting partner of the mother. This is a very restrictive amendment that would ensure that only married couples could jointly be the parents of a child born through donor-assisted human reproduction. It would specifically deprive cohabiting couples or civil partners from joint legal parentage of a child. This goes much further even than establishing a hierarchy of families, as it sets out that the only family we are prepared to recognise of a donor-conceived child is the constitutionally recognised marital family. I have already spoken in this House about the hierarchy of family types and how in 1987 we stated that we would do away with the concept of illegitimacy. This would seek to reverse the policy behind that, in effect, and it would discriminate once again between certain family types. That is utterly against the spirit of this Bill, which is intended to protect and support a range of families and their children. It is not just problematic in terms of public policy; it has serious implications in terms of the European Convention on Human Rights in that it would completely fail to recognise the rights of non-marital couples to private and family life. If we examine case law relating to children's rights to family life as well, it would also cut across that; the amendment indicates that the reality of children in varying family types cannot be recognised.

The evidence does not support a contention that only a married couple can provide for the welfare and best interests of a child born through donor-assisted human reproduction. The evidence indicates that a range of family types, including single women, can look after children extremely well. There is some very detailed and interesting research relating to the experiences of children in same-sex families. Senator Power commented that what matters is the stability of families and the quality of relationships, which will have an impact on how well a child does. The amendment is not supported by the evidence and I cannot accept it.

Amendment No. 3 would specify that a child born as a result of a donor-assisted human reproduction procedure would have two parents. Again, this involves a hierarchy of family types and would deprive single women of the possibility of fulfilling what might be a much-desired wish to become a mother. As I have already stated, it would stigmatise lone parents again to suggest that lone parenting is unacceptable from a public policy perspective. This is not the type of attitude we should be reflecting in legislation. Amendments Nos. 26 to 28, inclusive, propose restrictions which would prevent people other than married couples, in the case of amendments Nos. 26 and 28, or couples, in the case of amendment No. 27, from accessing donor-assisted human reproduction. The evidence does not support such an approach to public policy.

I would like to make a number of other points. The Bill does not change the parentage of the vast majority of children in Ireland. The child's birth mother will continue to be the child's mother, except where the child is adopted, just as at present. There are a small number of children who are donor-conceived and who are in an insecure position in terms of their second parent.Many of them are born to married couples. The Bill enables these children to have the chance of a second parent, which is in line with what is desired by some of the Senators who are putting down these amendments. It is giving a right to certainty to that donor-conceived child in respect of his or her parents. Obviously, all donor-conceived children have mothers. The Bill will also give them the chance to have a second parent and it safeguards the parentage rights of the husband who is not biologically linked to a child as the presumption of paternity of a married husband can be overturned.

I believe we must legislate for the realities. These children are here in Ireland and this technology is being used. I have the figures regarding the number of children. I have already said that there are hundreds of thousands of men and women who are affected by fertility issues in this country and who are seeking to resolve them. The vision in this Bill is that a child has loving parents and can grow up in love and security. I do not want to depart from the amendments but I believe the legislation is helping children in these situations to move to a position of greater certainty.

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