The Midland Health Board is reporting to the Department of Health and Children on an "ongoing basis" about the case of a 14-year-old girl who allegedly became pregnant while in care, a Department spokesman said yesterday, writes Joe Humphreys.
The teenager is understood to have become pregnant when she was 13, while at a care facility in Britain.
She was in the care of the MHB at the time and was sent overseas because there was no suitable place for her in the State.
The MHB has neither confirmed nor denied it is considering taking a teenager in its care to Britain for an abortion.
Two teenagers have undergone abortions in Britain while under the care of a health board since the 1997 C case when the then eastern health board sought permission to take a 13-year-old girl overseas for a termination of her pregnancy.
The South Eastern Health Board and the East Coast Area Health Board each facilitated one such case last year.
Conference on nomadism today
A major conference on travelling and nomadism will today call on the Taoiseach to "repudiate its 40-year-old policy of settling and assimilating Travellers".
Despite concerted government efforts, Irish Traveller nomadism continues to survive, with estimates indicating that 25 per cent of Travellers are mobile at any one time, researcher Mr Robin McVeigh will tell the conference hosted by Trinity College Dublin's law school.
The conference, which will also be addressed by Prof William Binchy on the right to nomadism in international law, and Irish Traveller Ms Maria Joyce, is part of Traveller Focus Week.
New findings on cancer therapy
A form of chemotherapy traditionally given to women with late-stage breast cancer has been found in a new study to significantly reduce the risk of death if given to women with early stage disease.
The study, which was conducted among almost 1,500 patients across 20 countries, found if Taxotere was given to women with early-stage breast cancer it reduced the risk of death by 30 per cent five years after surgery.
There was also a 28 per cent reduction in the likelihood of their cancer returning compared to women treated with standard chemotherapy after surgery.
CAB urged to fund addict treatment
A Dublin inner-city anti- drugs group has made a Christmas appeal to the Government to make available for drug treatment any money confiscated by the Criminal Assets Bureau. The Inner City Organisations Network (ICON), which unveiled its commemorative Christmas tree last night, said the role of community projects must now be emphasised in the battle against drugs.
"We think there is a strong case to be made that the money confiscated from heroin dealers through the CAB process should be used to provide a holistic, integrated treatment service for addicts," said Mr Joe Dowling of the network's drug support project.
