Seanad debates

Thursday, 26 March 2015

Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015: Committee Stage

 

10:30 am

Photo of Rónán MullenRónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 29:



In page 28, between lines 16 and 17, to insert the following:“(4) A person shall not perform a DAHR procedure unless account has been taken of the welfare and best interests of any child who may be born as a result of the treatment.”.
This amendment, as do they all, has to do with the welfare of the child. The text to be inserted would read "A person shall not perform a DAHR procedure unless account has been taken of the welfare and best interests of any child who may be born as a result of the treatment." The purpose is to insert a child welfare clause that mirrors closely section 13(5) of the United Kingdom's Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act 1990, as amended by the 2008 Act. Section 13(5) of the aforementioned Act, as amended, provides that "A woman shall not be provided with treatment services unless account has been taken of the welfare of any child who may be born as a result of the treatment (including the need of that child for supportive parenting), and of any other child who may be affected by the birth." The 2008 amendment to the British legislation substituted the words "supportive parenting" for the words "a father" - no surprise there.

In the coming few years, ever more experimental donor-assisted human reproduction techniques are likely to be attempted to provide same-sex couples with their own genetic children. Scholarly articles refer to things like multiplex parenting and so on in which one is talking about attempts to artificially create gametes. A welfare clause, such as the measure I am proposing, may be useful in challenging the use of such techniques, at least in their early years, given the possibility of unknown health effects on the children conceived. It would be ironic were Ireland, with its new children's rights article in the Constitution, to produce legislation that is even less child-centred than the British one by reason of the Bill's omission of any statutory requirement similar to that of the British section 13(5). Like all the restrictions on donor-assisted human reproduction procedures contained in section 25, there are no enforcement provisions or related offences contained in the Bill.

Members also should recognise that section 13(5), perhaps not surprisingly given its general terms and the inherent vagueness of the phrase "account has been taken", has proved to be something of a dead letter in practice in Britain. However, that is not to say that an equivalent provision in this Bill might not be useful because it possibly could be pleaded in conjunction with the children's rights article, Article 42A, which obviously currently is pending before the courts. I think it would be useful and, at the very least, we should mirror that British provision even if it has not proven to be that useful in the past. The circumstances in Ireland, given our constitutional situation, might give it some effect.

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