Top doctor warns abortion law ‘distorting’ medical decisions

Dr Mahony told RTE’s Claire Byrne: “For me, the Eighth Amendment causes difficulties in making sound medical decisions, it asks doctors to make really complex medical decisions in the context of criminal offences.

“This is where the Eighth Amendment really gives us difficulty – we’ve seen its ability to distort medical decisions.”

Dr Mahony gave the example of the case of a brain-dead woman who had her organs maintained to allow the foetus to develop.

She revealed: “Overwhelming medical opinion was that it was futile, as it would be many weeks before the foetus would reach viability.

“I think that when something like that happens in your country, you really do need to examine why that happened and could it happen again.”

Recent polls have found that two thirds of the Irish people would welcome a referendum on abortion.