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

This amendment requires an assessment in advance of the best interests and welfare of a child to be born. In current practice, this is a matter for clinics in the dealing with patients. There are wide implications for assisted human reproduction, AHR, more generally, which is why I have not made explicit provision in the Bill. This provision has implications for access to all forms of fertility treatment and the Minister for Health will be setting out the statutory framework for access to assisted reproduction generally. The Department of Health advises me that such provisions are planned for the AHR legislation that will provide for welfare of the child assessment, which effectively will provide a way of assessing if patients are suitable for treatment with all the usual criteria being considered. Based on these assessments, clinics may refuse to provide treatment to particular individuals in order to protect potential children from serious medical, physical or psychological harm.That would be very much in line with the 2005 Commission on Assisted Human Reproduction report, which recommended that legislation should be enacted to confer on AHR service providers a discretion to deny AHR treatments to individuals where there is serious concern, supported by objective evidence, that the welfare of any resultant child could be at risk.

Currently, every fertility clinic in Ireland carries out some form of assessment procedure. However, the lack of regulatory guidance means that assessment criteria may be inconsistent. This goes back to the need for a wider regulation of the sector. We will bring coherence to that system through the AHR legislation.

The remit of this Bill is narrowly focused on what is essential to allow the assignment of parentage. This specific issue has relevance for all forms of assisted human reproduction, whether or not there is donor involvement. On this basis, the proper place for the best interest assessment for access to treatment is in the overall legislation. This amendment has implications for all of AHR, so I believe the best place for it is in the wider AHR legislation.

We have the best interest principle in the Bill generally. When there are any court decisions to be made, the golden thread running through the legislation concerns the criteria of the child's best interest. The Department of Health will ensure that such provisions are planned for in the broader AHR legislation so that it is implemented in a uniform way across the country.

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