Dr. John Holian:

My profound apologies. Like Dr. Walshe, I have often had to have difficult conversations with patients about the potentially devastating impact of their kidney disease on a longed-for pregnancy or the implications of a pregnancy for their kidney disease. Where termination may be appropriate, it is often best clinical practice to provide that termination in the site that has adequate and specialist resources. The point I am making is that although the perception out there might be that the number of terminations that have occurred in St. Vincent's up until this point has been relatively few, one must bear in mind where patient care is best served and where the specialists are at present. Once that specialist care is available in St. Vincent's, Dr. Walshe and I, along with our colleagues look forward to being able to offer that service on site in much more seamless and integrated fashion than the way we do currently.

It is not a matter of sending somebody to Holles Street because of philosophical or theological reasons. It is purely because that is where it is best resourced at present. That is where the midwives are and where the appropriate counselling and aftercare can occur.