Michael McDowell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have a peculiar relationship with this legislation. At one stage the Attorney General was kind enough to instruct me in the case of MR and DR v. An t-Ard-Chláraitheoir in the Supreme Court, where my function was to uphold that the mother of a child to be registered on a birth certificate was the person who actually bore the child. At that time, the Supreme Court was informed and was shown draft legislation, which was then in place, to deal with surrogacy coming, I think, from the Department of Justice. I am not quite clear where it was to come from; maybe it was the Department of Health. The Supreme Court was told that it was the early intention of the Government to deal with this issue, and that was the bones of 11 years ago. I have, therefore, personal interaction with this problem. I believe strongly in regularising assisted reproduction. I believe strongly in regularising the provision of IVF treatment. I believe strongly that there has to be some regulatory framework for embryological research. This country needs to face up to all of those issues and they cannot be put back any more.

On the question of surrogacy, the case that I have mentioned was very interesting from the point of view that the two parties who sought to have the biological mother of the child registered as the mother on the birth certificate were in the position that the would-be mother of the child had a congenital absence of a womb but had ovaries and was in a position to produce eggs capable of fertilisation by her husband's sperm. She was also lucky enough that a close relative of hers - I think it was her sister from memory - agreed to carry the child out of the goodness of her heart and knowing what a burden childlessness places on many couples. Even where a condition such as the biological mother in that case faced is not the case, there are many other mothers, and I have relatives for whom this applies, for whom childlessness or the threat of childlessness has been a huge problem in their lives, a problem for their families, and a psychological yearning to be mothers and to be the parents of children. I understand all of that intimately. I believe, therefore, as in the case of the one I mentioned that went to the Supreme Court, that there is nothing wrong with surrogacy per se.

I have listened to the speeches that have been made. The one thing I would accord to everybody is that I actually believe that all of the contributions thus far have been made from a position of sincerity. I do not believe that they are made from a position of cynicism. I do not share Senator Mullen's views on IVF treatment. I do not share his view that every fertilised ovum is a human person. I do not believe that and I think that is about as logical as saying that every acorn is an oak tree. It is not in my view a tenable position but he comes to it from a different philosophical, and perhaps religious, perspective.

I believe that surrogacy legislation is necessary, and that IVF and assisted reproduction legislation is necessary. The time is well overdue, especially as I promised the Supreme Court on behalf of the then Attorney General ten years ago that the matter was about to be dealt with and that it should be dealt within a decade.I take Senator Seery Kearney's point that if this legislation falls with this Oireachtas, who knows when it will happen? All of the parents who are in limbo will remain in limbo. While I accept all those points, I make the point that the fact that we are now being asked to rush it through is not the fault of this House. The function of Senators is to examine legislation carefully. Our function is to go through this, section by section. It is a desperate pity that between the utilisation of heavy majorities in this House - the party Whip and all the rest of it - that the process for which this House was designed under the Constitution and for which it was retained by the people in a referendum is largely to be bypassed. I appeal to everybody to deal with one another in relation to the text of this Bill on the basis of respect and to accept one another's sincerity and to simply go through it, as we should do, to see if it is the best phraseology to deal with what are very complex and pressing human problems with huge emotional overlay.