Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

There is a problem with the word "foetus" because sometimes one is talking about an embryo and sometimes about a zygote. It is not the best definition in the world. I would have thought that "pregnancy" would be more all encompassing.

There has been a suggestion by a couple of people who are against abortion that we are somewhat trying to sanitise the procedure by taking the word "foetus" out. I am thrilled the word "foetus" is being used by these people because all we heard during the debate was the "child". We were trying to get a more scientific definition that there are stages in a pregnancy, sometimes it is a foetus, sometimes it is an embryo, sometimes it is a zygote and sometimes it is a child. It is nothing to do with sanitising the process but trying to find the best definition and I think that is what people are genuinely doing.