Dr. Anthony McCarthy:

I raised the matter of infanticide because I am very aware of history. I am also aware, particularly as a psychiatrist, of the history of psychiatry, women who were pregnant, and the control and often the severe things that psychiatry was involved in and responsible for during their pregnancies. I do not want to go back to anything in history. In my practice in Holles Street, my responsibility to anyone who comes to me is to make the best decision for them. When someone comes to see me, I am certainly not there to encourage them to have a termination if, in helping them to come to a decision, that is the worst thing to do. Those circumstances would have a very negative outcome. I am equally not there to bring any personal view to her decision. From my work in the confidential inquiry into maternal deaths, it was evident that so often, when women kill themselves, they do so while pregnant, sometimes with one baby or two, or there is infanticide afterwards. There is a hierarchy of ideals. An ideal is where everyone is happy with pregnancy and everything is wonderful. If I must have a choice between infanticide, back street abortion and abortion in an everyday way, my hierarchy is to go for the least damaging option. That is a personal view. My professional responsibility is to deal with the individual woman before me, and maybe her partner, to help her or them come to the decision that is right for her or them.