Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise. I was making the point that while Senator Norris is entirely correct that the word "shortly" appeared in the general scheme published in March, it was on the basis of the Attorney General's advice that we needed to define what was meant by that. When I spoke to clinicians, they told me there is really a choice of two timeframes from a clinical perspective, either seven days or 28 days. The latter is known clinically as the neonatal period. We opted for the 28-day period.

I will make two points in direct response to Senator Norris's amendment. First, what about protection for a doctor? Sometimes things are not an exact science. I contend, as would the Attorney General, that the phrases "of the reasonable opinion" and "formed in good faith" provide a clinical protection because what we are asking our clinicians to do is to arrive at a viewpoint in their reasonable opinion and in good faith. I think this gives our clinicians protection in that we are trusting them to make the appropriate decisions.

The Senator also raised a very important issue about viability when he asked whether there would have to be very intrusive measures. I refer him to the definition of "viability", which is in a different section of the legislation, which states "without extraordinary life-sustaining measures".