Independent TD Mattie McGrath has introduced a bill to the Dáil that would made it an offence for medical staff to use the term "incompatible with life" when describing the condition of a foetus.

Should medical staff use the term to "describe an unborn child with a diagnosed disability" they would be subject to a possible judgement of poor professional performance" under the Medical Practitioners Act 2007.

Earlier, the TD for Tipperary South was accompanied by parents from the group Every Life Counts to talk to senators and TDs about their campaign to have the term removed from medical and professional discourse.

They then sat in the gallery of the Dáil as the bill was introduced.

Speaking in the Dáil, Mr McGrath said that "like many phrases that may once have been prevalent in our society, for example terms like illegitimate or retard, the phrase incompatible with life must be eliminated from our public discourse".

Speaking outside the Dáil, Tracy Harkin, spokeswoman for Every Life Counts, said that she was there with other mothers to share their testimonies.

Ms Harkin's daughter Kathleen Rose was diagnosed with Trisomy 13, a chromosomal condition associated with severe intellectual disability and physical abnormalities.

She said her daughter's condition was described as being "incompatible with life".

However, Ms Harkin had her eight-year-old daughter had "defied all expectations" and believes the fact that she did not receive the diagnosis prenatally was one of the reasons that she was given such good care when she was born.

Ms Harkin said the term "incompatible with human life" was not a "medical diagnosis" and described it as "hugely hurtful and insensitive" and said that "it was preventing best care for babies before and after birth".

"Many of the parents in Every Child Counts felt that their children were really abandoned when this label was put on their child's forehead," Ms Harkin said.

Every Child Counts is also campaigning for perinatal hospice care.

"We're not looking for miracles, we're not looking for kidney transplants or heart transplants, we're realistic... we really think this language [incompatible with human life] needs to be discontinued," Ms Harkin said, calling for it to be replaced with terms such as "life-limiting"

However, the bill has been criticised as offensive and inappropriate by a spokesperson for Terminations for Medical Reasons Ireland group (TFMR Ireland).

Gerry Edwards said that "incompatible with life" was a prognosis that he and other expecting parents were given by foetal health specialists when they made a diagnosis for their babies.

"It reflected the tragic situation that we were faced with, that our babies were not going to live outside the womb." Mr Edwards said.

He and his wife Gaye's son Joshua had anencephaly, which prevents the normal development of the brain and skull.

"His brain and skull were missing, that's unfortunately not life-limiting. We would have wished it to be anything but [what it was] but the reality is that it was incompatible with life".

"There has been a lot of language from some people who are opposed to terminations being made available in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities that our babies were sick, or were terminally ill, or had life-limiting conditions, and those simply don't reflect the facts... the facts were that our babies could not live outside the womb and the proper medical language for that is that they were incompatible with life," Mr Edwards said.

"To demean that language in any way is to demean our babies, it’s to demean their medical conditions and it’s to demean the decisions that we made." Mr Edwards said.

Mr Edwards added that the TFMR Ireland campaign for the availability of terminations in cases of fatal foetal abnormalities was not at odds with calls for perinatal hospice care, which it also supported.

A lottery will now determine when and if the Disability Amendment Bill 2015 will be debated in the Dáil.