Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am explaining the rationale for my amendment. I stress to colleagues, including Senator Norris, that what is sought is not intrusive on the person. Anonymised data are sought. They are data that would presumably have to be supplied to the certifying physician. The question is whether the certifying physician should be under a duty of law to pass the information on. There is such a disparity between the British requirement and what this legislation requires. It requires only four categories of information, with one at least seeming pretty pointless, namely, the county involved. I suggest to Senator Norris that if he agrees that even one of the categories listed in our amendment is potentially relevant, he will agree, in fairness to him, because he is a reasonable man, that I have made the case that this section needs to be amended.

I suggest the following category is worthy of consideration because it relates to an amendment that we talked about previously. We were assured when I tabled the amendment that if a baby is born alive as a result of an abortion procedure, it is not necessary to impose a duty to care for that baby. I am not at all reassured. It is even less likely that doctors will do the right thing if they do not even have to notify the State whether a live birth follows the termination of pregnancy and, if it does, the care given to the baby and the outcome. If the Government is serious about reassuring us that this will all come under medical best practice and there is absolutely no need to provide for the duty in law, it is a strange way to go about it. I refer to not requiring in law even the safeguard that practitioners would have to provide information on what they are doing and what they have done.

Let me refer to the amendments proposed on the need for pain relief. Questions on the date and the method and medical agents used to bring about termination of pregnancy are relevant. I did not know before I found out about British statistics gathering what words such as "gravidity" and "parity" meant. I apologise to Senator Norris if I have the wrong word. For the enlightenment of the House, I understand "gravidity" refers to the number of pregnancies and "parity" refers to pregnancies carried to a viable gestational age. I do not know why the British require details on marital status-----