Seanad debates

Thursday, 26 March 2015

Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage

 

10:30 am

Photo of Jim WalshJim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The use of donor eggs is forbidden in Germany. I could go on and say that Austria is similar and only permits it for stable heterosexual couples living together. Sperm donation for single women or lesbian couples is forbidden. Egg donation and the use of donor eggs are forbidden.I understand that, even in France, that is the situation, and Switzerland and Italy are quite interesting as well. Without going into the detail, they all have forms of this. Admittedly, the amendment I have put down is perhaps a little more restricted than some of those because I have this applying just to married couples. However, in Switzerland, for example, donor sperm can be used only by married couples and egg donation is forbidden. The aim is to enable a couple to overcome infertility where other treatment methods have failed or offered no prospect of success, and there is no other way of avoiding the risk of transmitting a serious or incurable disease. Apart from that, there are restrictions, even on married couples.

I think what is in this Bill is premature. Not near enough thought and consideration has been given to the overall situation. I know what the Minister said and I take note of it, namely, that in the later Bill, which is often referred to as the surrogacy Bill, serious outstanding issues will be addressed, and I certainly hope that is the case. However, we have no regulation. We are the only country out of those countries I mentioned that has no regulation in place. That is not good enough.

To be honest, I was caught in two minds as to whether to go with this amendment or just oppose donor-assisted human reproduction altogether until such time as it was fully fleshed out and all aspects were considered, and until the complexity was ironed out in a way that would be satisfactory and would be to the welfare of society, in particular the welfare of children. I certainly do not think allowing the broad span that is contained in this Bill is the way to go, given it would be one of the most liberal that occurs. I believe this is driven by a political imperative, and I have said that. I was surprised, when I went through the Bill, to discover the number of times "civil partnership" and "same-sex" was mentioned - 196 times, and I have had them counted. This comes about because of the Bill we are discussing tomorrow, and that is not the right way to approach it. In fact, I do not think it even helps the Minister's position in regard to the Bill we are discussing tomorrow because it leaves a whole plethora of outstanding issues about which the citizens have no certainty, in particular how those issues are going to pan out in regard to the fallout from endorsing that Bill on 22 May.

At this stage, the Minister should make some refinement of where she is going. While diversity is there, I do not accept the Minister would just throw a legislative veil over it without having some direct policy input into it. We are not spectators in this whole area. There are, of course, advances in science but this is now leading into areas of social re-engineering. We need to be acutely conscious of the effect it may have on youngsters and other people in the future. I have seen evidence of this from some people who have engaged with it, or who have been the product of assisted human reproduction. We need to be cautious. Other countries are cautious, and I would wish that, equally, we would show the same caution and that the best interests of children would be absolutely paramount. To me, that should be the prime consideration. Everything else is secondary to that, including the interests of adults.

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