Consultant medical oncologists at the Mater hospital in Dublin have said churches or administrators should not have a role in discussions between doctors and cancer patients over the issue of becoming pregnant while receiving chemotherapy.
Last week the clinical trial advisory group at the Mater deferred trial of a drug for patients with lung cancer on the basis that the wording in the patient information leaflet ran counter to the Catholic ethos of the Mater. This said that patients would have to agree to use birth control but stated that abstinence was acceptable. The Mater hospital said that, while the word "abstinence" was used, it still had concerns
. Yesterday consultants in medical oncology at the Mater said they did not believe pharmaceutical companies made it mandatory for patients participating in clinical trials to use contraception.
In a letter to The Irish Times Dr John McCaffrey and Prof Desmond Carney said they did not share the views attributed to the special advisers to the executive management committee of the Mater hospital.
"With more than 40 years' combined experience in managing cancer, in Ireland and abroad, we strongly believe that no one should become pregnant while on chemotherapy. We have always counselled our patients to avoid pregnancy. This discussion - with patients and their partners - is a private matter between doctor and patient, and may involve a discussion of different methods of birth control, including abstinence.
"We believe that no church (except that desired by the patient) or administrator has any role in this exchange and we continue to believe and practise this. . . Physical risk to the health and viability of the foetus, or treatment refusal by a pregnant woman who might die from cancer leaving a motherless child, are two potential, albeit extreme, results from not appropriately counselling patients before chemotherapy," the consultants write.
"The clinical trials research environment has not changed the fact that this discussion occurs but rather enforces the need for informed patient consent and clear documentation of this process. Being on a clinical trial and placing in writing the fact that this discussion has taken place should not to our mind offend the hospital ethos."
