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

All right. I note the Senator's concerns and the points that have been made.However, the area is completely unregulated at present and we are beginning to put legislation around certain aspects of AHR and DAHR.

The purpose of amendment No. 5 is to raise the minimum age of a donor to 21 years. This appears to be to match the minimum age of intending parents, although we do have the opposite amendment later on. The basis for setting different ages, however, is not arbitrary. The age of 18 is set for a prospective donor on the grounds that he or she is of full age and has the capacity to consent to any necessary medical treatment and to give full legal consent in relation to the assignment of parentage. That said, I am advised that it takes quite a while to recruit suitable donors, given the clinical requirements for medical screening and counselling and, in the case of women, the medical interventions which are required. The age is unlikely to actually be 18 because of all those factors and the fact that, for the most part, donors will be somewhat older than the minimum age established. I do not think it is necessary or appropriate to set a higher minimum age and it potentially creates a barrier to the donor recruitment process.

Senators raised questions about the implications of a donation, but consent is key, and that is in the legislation. The donor has to give detailed consent and this should alert him to the implications of his actions. He has to consent to the information being put on the register, to being contacted and to the implications around parentage. We discussed counselling earlier, and there is counselling, albeit on a voluntary basis. Senator Healy Eames makes a very relevant point about the objectivity of counselling, and it will be for the Minister for Health, Deputy Varadkar, to consider the precise form that counselling should take.

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