Professor Veronica O'Keane:

I will be brief. One of the reasons there appears to be some disagreement between the expert witnesses is because we are debating slightly different matters. Professor Casey is talking about not bringing forward legislation and the rest of us are talking about what might be in that possible legislation and regulation. I came before the committee to talk about the shape that legislation and regulation might take because that is what we were invited here to discuss. Some of the disagreement to which I refer may be related to that.

Among the body of psychiatry there is absolute consensus that we are able to assess risk. Reference was made to the fact that perhaps only three out of every 100 people who are assessed die by suicide. This means that 97 people do not die. All of medicine - not just psychiatry - is about risk assessment and risk management. If somebody is at risk of suicide, we will do everything we can to prevent that. It is in our interest to save a person's life and to bring them back to as full a position of health as they can enjoy. That is why we become doctors; that is what we do.

On the final point, Professor Casey said that psychiatrists run the risk of erring on the side of caution. I wish to point out that it is not psychiatrists who are running the risk. We are just conduits for this proposed legislation, if it is brought forward. It is the woman who runs the risk. It is the woman who - when she has been supplied with the relevant information or whatever from the experts requested to provide it under the process that will be legislated for - will decide. The expert group report emphasises the fact that it will be the woman who will decide whether she wants to continue to have a termination of pregnancy. It is not psychiatrists who are making the determination, it is the woman who is involved.