Dr. John Monaghan:

Deputy Mathews drew our attention to something which is extraordinarily important in medicine and in every branch of life and is reported to be disappearing, that is, trust. An English baroness, Onora O'Neill, wrote a book about trust, which has had a huge impact. I have been a member of the Medical Council for the past five years and I bought a copy of it for the members of the council. Many of them found it very useful to reflect on this and a lot of it relates to health care. I do not know how to relate it directly to the abortion question but there is certainly evidence from other countries of serious breaches of trust. During the week the trial of an American, Dr. Gosnell, showed there are ferocious breaches of trust and dishonesty associated with what one might call the abortion industry and it would be appalling if that came into this country.

Deputy Spring raised the question of conscientious objection between two psychiatric units - in other words, if a person was suicidal, she would be moved to another psychiatric hospital. Is that correct?