Mary Seery Kearney (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are using the term "suboptimal", which is to presume there is a circumstance that is optimal. In Senator Mullen's proposition, optimal refers to a mother and a father. However, optimal also means not being born into poverty or having the opportunity of education and a whole heap of things. If we decide on what optimal is, are we then moving into a position of eugenics? Are we moving into a position by which we decide that whole swathes of our society should not have children because they have a fertility issue, one that can be overcome by science but which we will not regulate for and ban it instead because it is not optimal? The position about what constitutes "optimal" is merely a philosophical statement. It may be well and sincerely held but it is a philosophical position. I absolutely and categorically reject referring to anyone's family or arrangement as being suboptimal.