IRELAND
Doctors in legal limbo over morning-after pill for minors
Family doctors are increasingly facing a legal dilemma as teenage girls often unaccompanied by a parent arrive in their surgery looking for the morning after pill, it was revealed yesterday.
"We receive numerous requests for advice in relation to these situations," said John O'Connor, a Dublin solicitor who acts for medical professional bodies. "Generally two issues need to be considered the first is consent to medical treatment and second is the issue of reporting possible or actual child abuse," he told the annual meeting of the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) in Killarney, yesterday.
The minor can also be involved in consensual sexual activity with another teenager, he pointed out.
If the teenager comes into the surgery on her own the doctor is advised to try to contact her parents to get consent, but even if that is not possible, the doctor would also have to take into account the risk to the child's health of not giving her the prescription. He added: "Where a patient under the age of 17 years presents seeking the morning after pill the patient will not legally have consented to sexual intercourse."
Mr O'Connor pointed out that although there is no statutory obligation on doctors to report suspected child abuse there is an ethical obligation to do so. In general, it would appear there is an onus on the practitioner to report such matters other than in circumstances where they feel this is clearly in the best interest of his or her patient.
Mr O'Connor was speaking at a special session on child protection where evidence emerged that abused youngsters are being failed by an over-burdened and under-resourced social service.
Ineke Durville, president of the Irish Association of Social Workers, said children in care who are visited by their parents may end up having the meeting in a fast food restaurant because there is a lack of proper facilities. She said the service is now "crisis driven" and children are sometimes so traumatised and disturbed by abuse by the time they are dealt with by social services that they cannot be placed in another family and have to go into residential care.
Care
Funding for services has remained at 2002 levels or been cut.
There is a lack of appropriate care placements for teenagers which can
lead to teenagers becoming homeless. And some children in care do not
have a social worker to ensure that plans are made for their future, Ms
Durville said.
Some cases may never get dealt with and a lot now feel it is "futile" to refer children early because they will not be seen. She criticised remarks by Taoiseach Brian Cowen in the Dail when he questioned why 300 social workers could not deal with 3,000 child cases. "He showed a very poor understanding of the complexities involved and the amount of time one case can take," she said.
Addressing the gathering, Dr Dick van der Spek, a paediatrician in the North East, warned that, in some cases, children who have been sexually abused have to travel long distances to be examined. He said there is no central assessment centre for child sexual abuse and doctors who are not seeing many cases may miss signs.
Eilish O'Regan
18 April 2009
