CONTRACEPTION:THERE HAS been a huge increase in the number of family doctors seeking legal advice on what to do when under-age girls come to them looking for the morning-after pill, a solicitor has said.
Speaking at the annual conference of the Irish Medical Organisation yesterday, Dublin-based solicitor John O’Connor said this was because a child under 16 years does not have power to consent to medical treatment.
He advised that where a child is not accompanied by a parent, a doctor may prescribe the morning-after pill provided the doctor feels the girl fully understands the nature and effect of the treatment.
“It is critical, however, that the doctor should seek to obtain parental consent with the agreement of the child and record his or her attempts to obtain such consent,” he said.
Mr O’Connor, whose firm acts for Medisec Ireland Limited providing advisory services to GPs, said that where girls under 16 are seeking the morning-after pill without any parental involvement the doctor may need to consider the effect on the child if the pill is not prescribed, and in the interest of safeguarding the child’s health may prescribe the morning-after pill as an emergency treatment.
He pointed out that issues in relation to possible assault and informing third parties may arise after treatment because those aged 15 to 17 years cannot consent to sexual intercourse. There was, he said, no statutory obligation on a doctor to report a suspicion of child abuse, but that was not to say they did not have an ethical obligation to report in certain cases.
Meanwhile, Ineke Durcan, president of the Irish Association of Social Workers, told delegates that staff and funding shortages meant the State’s child protection services are “crisis driven”. She said emergency cases were being prioritised and people now often do not refer cases at an early stage because they feel it is “futile”.
Staff had been cut following two embargoes in December 2002 and autumn 2007 and as a result some children in care do not have a social worker to ensure that plans are made for their future.