Seanad debates

Tuesday, 11 December 2018

Health (Regulation of Termination of Pregnancy) Bill 2018: Committee Stage (Resumed)

 

10:30 am

Photo of Rónán MullenRónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 36:

In page 10, between lines 27 and 28, to insert the following:

“Administration of anaesthetic or analgesic to foetus14. (1) A medical practitioner who carries out a termination of pregnancy shall take all steps as may be appropriate and practicable to avoid causing pain to the foetus.
(2) Where the medical practitioner who is carrying out a termination of pregnancy is of the reasonable opinion formed in good faith that the gestational age of the foetus is 20 weeks or more, he or she shall administer or ensure the administration of an anaesthetic or analgesic to the foetus prior to the carrying out of the termination of pregnancy.

(3) Subsection (2) shall not apply where—
(a) 2 medical practitioners certify that they are of the reasonable opinion formed in good faith that the administration of an anaesthetic or analgesic to the foetus would pose a risk to the life, or of serious harm to the health, of the pregnant woman in respect of whom the termination of pregnancy is being carried out, or

(b) a medical practitioner proposes to carry out a termination of pregnancy in accordance with section 10 and it is not practicable to comply with the obligation in subsection (2) because of the particular circumstances of the case.
(4) Where—
(a) an anaesthetic or analgesic is administered to a foetus in accordance with subsection (2), or

(b) subsection (3) or (4) applies,

the medical practitioner who carries out the termination of pregnancy shall include this information in the notification forwarded or caused to be forwarded to the Minister under section 20(2).”.

Amendment No. 41 is consequential on amendment No. 36. This amendment could be called the second "mercy" amendment. It has a very simple rationale. It is an expression of the compassion which we all ought to have for unborn children and the basic principle that no human being should have to suffer pain unnecessarily. This amendment puts a duty on doctors to minimise pain to the foetus, the unborn child, through the use of anaesthetics and analgesics where possible and appropriate. It places a duty on doctors to use such medications where the unborn child is at over 20 weeks' gestation. It does not apply in emergency situations, as set out in section 10, or where it might pose a risk to the life of, or serious harm to, the pregnant woman. The Minister rejected a similar amendment on Report Stage in the Dáil and made the following statement, which I regard as extraordinary:

the purpose of this legislation is not to regulate or dictate the practice of obstetrics. That is not what we do in this House. There is a very thin line that we should not cross where we move from being policy makers to being doctors. We have to be very conscious of that.

It is true that we should not move from being policy makers to being doctors, though there are doctors who moved to being policy makers and one would have hoped they would have known better than to abandon the time-honoured principles of care in the policies for which they advocate. The line was crossed a long time ago in terms of what ought to be done and what ought not to be done in this House and the idea that the purpose of this legislation is not to regulate or dictate the practice of obstetrics is Orwellian in language, because the practice of obstetrics in Ireland will never be the same again as a result of this legislation. To be frank, I was struck by the lack of self-awareness in the Minister's comments. It is doublespeak and the entire rationale underpinning this legislation is the imposition of a radical shift in medical ethics through the introduction of abortion on request, under section 12 and in ill-defined cases in other sections. A core ethical value of doctors, that they owe a duty to protect the life of unborn children, is being abolished by this legislation. It is a time-honoured value that has come to be attacked in the western world only in recent times. Doctors are being forced to choose between carrying out an abortion, acting to deliberately end the life of a foetus or referring the unborn onwards to be aborted at the risk of being drummed out of the medical profession and with no protection from the law as things stand. In spite of this, the Minister has the audacity to have said on Report Stage that the purpose of this legislation is not to regulate or dictate medical practice. Such language is simply an insult to the electorate, no matter how they voted. The dictation, the regulation and the changing of medical practice radically, fundamentally, dangerously and cruelly are the entire purpose of this legislation.

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