Dr. Seán Ó Domhnaill:

On the issue of pathways to care, I concur with my colleagues. Apart from the fact that we have 24-hour accident and emergency cover, I know that in the service with which I work any patients identified as posing a significant risk are seen within a matter of hours. Suicide in pregnancy is rare and, as my colleagues have pointed out, tends to be associated with the more severe manifestations of mental illness, such as psychotic depression. The treatment in that case is to treat the psychosis and depression. The patient, when she recovers, would be fairly upset if she thought a doctor had ended her pregnancy because she was depressed or psychotic. The doctor would probably be sued.

I have to make this point to Senator van Turnhout. We cannot cover all the angles. She mentioned the one case in 500,000, but how many lives is she prepared to sacrifice for that one case? Once you open the gates - once you legalise abortion on mental health or suicide grounds - they are open. If we look at Britain, where in 1967 there were just under 80,000 abortions and last year there were just under 200,000, we can see the price they paid. It is over 4 million. It is a question that is worth reflecting on. It is something that we should all reflect on, as members of society.

The question was raised of what to do when one is presented with incredibly difficult cases. I have no doubt I have been presented with some of the most difficult, bizarre, unprecedented, GUBU cases that I could ever have imagined. Thanks be to God, and my colleagues, the patients have survived. We do what we do best. We manage psychiatric emergencies. I am very confident in the service, particularly in the emergency psychiatric service provided in this country. It is excellent. It is unfortunate that the Minister for Health and other politicians might feel it necessary to impugn consultant psychiatrists, but I can honestly say that most of my colleagues work far beyond the number of hours required by their contracts.

On the question of why have the fear that somebody is going to sign these forms if suicidality is not a ground for abortion, again, ideology is an incredibly strong thing and there are those who cannot see beyond their ideology. I believe and hope that as clinicians - many of us consider ourselves somewhat vocational in our work - we are able to go beyond our own ideologies to provide the best possible treatment. However, the people who are watching and who will read the record of this hearing now and down the years may wonder what we were so afraid of. We read the newspapers. It is not often I get time to read them any more, but I do read the newspapers. The newspapers feed cynicism, if one is holding cynicism, and they have been particularly feeding it recently. A newspaper that I do not buy-----