Mr. Peter Thompson:

It would be difficult to say whether she is taking the right course because whatever course it is would be right for her. What we are much more concerned about is when people appear to be putting undue pressure on the woman. One of the reasons that we have a flexible time gap between diagnosis and when we would act is that it allows people to think. People have access to our telephone numbers and can speak to the midwives, who have been in the consultation as well and will also see the women again. Assessing somebody's strength of character is very difficult in this scenario, and passing judgment is difficult. However, we have difficulties when we feel that people are having undue pressure put on them by other members of the family either to continue or to end the pregnancy. That often becomes very obvious. Then we will see the patients apart from the other members of the family and discuss it with them in confidence.