REACTION:FINE GAEL'S Alan Shatter accused the Government of leaving the judiciary in an "unenviable position" by not having legislation in place to address disputes arising from assisted reproduction.
After the Supreme Court yesterday dismissed an appeal by a woman seeking to have three frozen embryos released to her for implantation, Mr Shatter claimed the Coalition had abdicated its legislative responsibility.
Mr Shatter, who is Fine Gael’s spokesman on children, said the Government had failed to make provision for the possible consequences of scientific developments in the area. “It is scandalous that the Government has completely failed to bring before the Houses of the Oireachtas essential legislation,” Mr Shatter said. “The Government’s abdication of its legislative responsibility in this area for over a decade has left the judiciary in the most unenviable of positions of not only having to fulfil their judicial duties but also of having to decide on matters of sensitive social policy.” Mr Shatter said Government should publish legislation as a matter of urgency and bring it before the Dáil early in the new year.
“The Government’s current approach of leaving the judiciary to navigate the waters of morality and ethics in this area is entirely unacceptable and can only result in further tortuous and distressing legal conflicts in this area having to be resolved by the courts.”
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the Pro-Life Campaign, Dr Berry Kiely, expressed disappointment at yesterday’s Supreme Court decision. Dr Kiely called on Government to introduce legislation “to protect human life at its earliest stages of development”.
However, he said before legislation was proposed Government must address what he described as “the glaring imbalance to date in the consultative process”.
Dr Kiely added: “We need legislation to protect the human embryo not the continued outsourcing of decision-making to unaccountable quangos or to some ‘regulatory body’.” He said the debate should not be construed as an ideological battle between those in favour of research and those opposed to scientific advances.
“Pro-life supporters are just as enthusiastic about the promise of finding treatments for infertility and cures for diseases, but strongly believe this can be achieved without recourse to the taking of human life,” he said.
“We must not, as a society, pass over this opportunity to unite ethics and science in a win-win solution that could make Ireland a centre of excellence for adult stem cell research, which is ethically sound and scientifically very promising.”
The Supreme Court judgment was welcomed by the Labour Party’s spokeswoman on health Jan O’Sullivan. She said the decision provided welcome clarification of the constitutional status of frozen embryos but also emphasised the urgent obligation on the Government to introduce legislation: “This must have been a difficult and distressing case for both parties involved and the absence of a clear legislative framework makes it likely that similar disputes could arise in the future.”
