Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

----- or "This would cause a charge on the Exchequer". Time and again, politicians bring politics into disrepute by hiding behind spurious, technical arguments. This amendment does not specify the "how" of pain relief, or which drugs should be used any more than this legislation does not get into the details of the care path and the treatment plan for women in this situation. For the Minister to compare the simple direction that pain relief be administered in the light of the best available evidence with getting into the detail of the appropriate clinical treatment of women is simply disingenuous. It is a false comparison and a false analogy.It disrespects politics to engage in this kind of verbal wordplay. This legislation does not tell doctors how to do it - it tells them what they must do. In answer to my friend, Senator Norris, if Ireland was the first country to legalise abortion there might be some reason to assume that doctors carrying out abortions would at least try to administer pain relief where they suspected, even if they are not always certain, that pain might be felt by the child. One of the appalling realities of abortion in the western world is that it is tied in with ideology. That ideology refuses to countenance any aspect of the humanity of the unborn child. That is why I went into some detail - but not too much detail - about my engagement at the joint committee with the neonatologist, Mr. Peter Thompson. It was to demonstrate how shifty and uncertain he was when the question of pain relief was put to him.

The Minister is trying to communicate without going into detail because detail is dangerous for the Minister. Detail exposes the recklessness and cruelty of this legislation so the Minister avoids details by saying "I trust doctors". In reality, doctors who carry out abortions do not administer pain relief. If the Minister can show me the rules that apply in abortion regimes and jurisdictions about pain relief being administered to unborn children who are being aborted at a certain term of pregnancy, I would be very impressed because it would be more than he did in the Dáil. Internationally, in cases of abortion it is not considered necessary to administer pain relief. That is a hugely controversial judgment because it contradicts the emerging evidence that pain is felt. There is a political reason, rather than a medical or therapeutic reason, for not giving pain relief to unborn children who are being aborted. It is because it raises the question of whether it is right to abort human creatures who can feel pain.

The Minister and I will both have to grow old and we will both have to look at the things we have done in life. He may feel he is doing some good but I doubt if he will look back on this as his finest hour, when he is not willing, in light of the emerging science, to give a simple direction to the medical profession that, although the unborn child no longer has the right to life and the ending of the life of the foetus - even in late-term situations - is permitted by law, the basic humanity of pain relief is to be given. It is not acceptable to say this is a matter for doctors because we know that doctors who carry out abortions do not give pain relief in these situations. The humanity of the unborn is being denied.

Abortion is, in some situations, physically cruel and the Minister is being asked to at least mitigate the wrong of introducing abortion by insisting that, outside emergency situations and where there is no risk to the mother's life or health, relief is administered where there is reasonable belief that pain might be felt. The least the Minister could have done is allow this merciful amendment through.