The Attorney General has instructed a senior counsel to represent separately the interests of the unborn in today's High Court action in which a 17-year-old pregnant girl, whose baby suffers from a neural condition where most of its brain is missing, is seeking to restrain the HSE from preventing her travelling to Britain for an abortion.
When the action was mentioned yesterday, James Connolly SC told Mr Justice Liam McKechnie that he had been instructed by the Attorney General to be in the case to represent the interests of the unborn.
The Attorney General will have two teams of lawyers at today's hearing, one for the unborn and the other for the State.
The court was also told yesterday that the girl was assessed by a psychiatrist on behalf of the HSE on Tuesday. The Free Legal Aid Board confirmed that it had granted legal aid to the girl's natural mother so that she could be represented at the hearing.
The girl, who may be identified only as Miss D from the Leinster region, is four months pregnant with a foetus which has anencephaly, a condition where a major part of the brain is missing. The court has heard that a foetus with such a condition is only capable of survival for a maximum of three days outside the womb.
Miss D is in care as a result of an interim care order made by the District Court under the Child Care Act 1991 at the start of April.
She has claimed that she has been advised by the HSE that gardaí have been notified that she is not permitted to leave the State and have also been told that the care order makes it unlawful for her to leave the State without HSE permission.
The girl is seeking an order quashing the care order made by the District Justice to the extent that it restricts her from travelling from the State. She also wants an order quashing the decision of the HSE to contact the gardaí to request that she not be permitted to leave the State.
The case is against the District Justice, the HSE, Ireland and the Attorney General. The girl also wants an order quashing the decision of the HSE refusing to permit her to travel to procure the termination of her pregnancy unless she presented as a suicide risk.