The implications of the abortion referendum in Ireland

Abstract

This paper concerns the implications of the abortion referendum in Ireland, or rather, to be precise, a vote in favour of the Thirty-sixth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland Bill 2018, which was intended to repeal the Eight Amendment of the same constitution which guarantees the unborn child for the right to life unless the pregnancy is life threatening. The current Bill will (by an act of parliament) replace Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution which was added in 1983 and subsequently amended in 1992.2

One must immediately point out that the 1983 amendment made no reference to the philosophical doctrine of double effect whereby harm can be caused even if it is foreseen but is not intended and indirect. As we will see this has important consequences in a Catholic Hospital which was accused, rightly so, of a medical misadventure in Ireland causing the death of a woman who was 17 weeks pregnant, where the termination could have been done also on principle of double effect.