Jim Walsh (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This amendment states that "A donor-conceived child who has attained the age of 18 years may request from the Minister the name, date of birth, contact details and up-to-date full medical history of a relevant donor, as recorded and updated in the Register." It adds to the section in question the provision that the up-to-date full medical history of a relevant donor be kept updated in the register. I listened carefully to a previous amendment which had a similar connotation and the Minister said there was no method in the amendment to give effect to this and there were no sanctions attached to it. That can be overcome quite easily if she were to accept the principle of what we suggest. The donor could sign an undertaking to update the register in the full knowledge of the prescribed sanctions.

I see that there are practical difficulties but they do not mean we should abrogate something which would be in the best interests of the child and which would, in later life, be essential to their well-being. Students, who will be most of the donors, will have temporary accommodation and may be very difficult or impossible to subsequently trace. There is a requirement inherent in this legislation for some updating to be made of the register and the best interests of the child will certainly be served by having details of the health history of the donor being made available to him or her.

Some genetic ailments have serious consequences for siblings, children and other family members, such as ovarian cancer. Along with other cancers it is desirable and maybe essential that children are aware that they are at risk of them. Ovarian cancer is a particularly aggressive and insidious disease which has significant consequences for female members of the family. Generally, when it is detected in a member of the family relatives and children will go for regular scans and if they do not do so they are at a much higher risk of contracting the disease. These scans are carried out on an annual basis because of the nature of the disease.

There are also implications for women whose ovaries are hyperstimulated using hormones in order to provide the donor eggs which will be part of the process we are discussing. In general it will be poorer women from developing countries who will be donating because they are so financially challenged and this raises very serious and significant ethical and moral issues. Some countries outlaw egg donations completely, though I do not have all those countries in front of me at this moment. France, Germany, Austria and Switzerland allow sperm donations but restrict them to married couples or co-habiting couples in a stable relationship and they are among the countries which outlaw egg donations.

One must ask where the champions of women are and where are the champions of the poor. These are the people that will be affected, perhaps in other jurisdictions, because of the unregulated and unrestricted model we have here. These issues require a lot more consideration and analysis before we go down the road proposed. The legislation is open-ended and I have great difficulty accepting that.