A roundup of today's other stories in brief.
LIVING WILLS AND DIRECTIVES: The Irish Council for Bioethics is considering the ethical and legal issues surrounding advance directives and whether there is a demand or a necessity for advance directives, legally binding or otherwise, in Ireland.
An advance directive/living will is a statement made by a competent adult relating to the type and extent of medical treatments they would or would not want to undergo in the future should they be unable to express their wishes at that time.
In preparing its report the council wants to survey public opinion in Ireland on this matter.
Therefore, it is inviting members of the public, professional or voluntary organisations to fill in a questionnaire.
Questionnaires are available from the Irish Council for Bioethics, 19 Dawson Street, Dublin 2 (tel: 01 6380920) and must be returned by Friday, June 16th.
Submissions can also be made via the Bioethics website, www.bioethics.ie
NOT JUST FOR MUMS: Mothers of newborn children often monopolise the baby, leaving the father excluded and prevented from bonding with the child to the detriment of future family relations, according to an expert family therapist, writes Áine Kerr.
The birth of the first child is a "crucially important" point for every couple as it provides the test ground for a relationship whereby childcare is shared and the intimacy of the adult relationship is maintained, according to Corry de Johgh, a family therapist with the Clanwilliam institute in Dublin.
Marking the launch of a booklet, Just for Dads, which provides practical advice to fathers on how best to become involved with their children from the day of birth, Ms de Johgh said mothers had a tendency to use language which compartmentalised the roles of father and mother.
Despite unfair perceptions of fathers as being uninterested or lacking the skills to attend to newborn children, it is often the social conditioning of "mother knows best" which impinges on the development of equal paternal roles.
For a copy of the booklet, write to Calpol Just for Dads, PO Box 7808, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin or log on to www.calpolhealthclinic.ie.
CHILD SAFETY: The National Injury Prevention Committee is hosting a conference tomorrow which it says aims to challenge behaviours and attitudes to child safety in Ireland.
The committee's chairman, Martin Heffernan, said immediate action must be taken to reduce the number of childhood accidents both within and outside of the home and has urged healthcare professionals to attend the conference to support this aim.
"Unintentional injuries are a major cause of injury and death in Ireland," according to Mr Heffernan.
The Minister for Children, Brian Lenihan, will open the conference and there will be contributions from childcare and safety experts such as Dr Sean Walsh, emergency department consultant, Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin, and Dr Cian McDermott from St James's hospital.
Dr McDermott will discuss safety issues when using trampolines.
The conference takes place in the Burlington Hotel from 9.15am-3.30pm.
BREAST FASHION: The second Fashion Targets Breast Cancer (FTBC) campaign has been launched in aid of Action Breast Cancer, a project of the Irish Cancer Society, and Europa Donna Ireland.
The FTBC campaign centres on the sale of a designer range of T-shirts, each bearing a distinctive bull's eye target logo.
In Ireland, all T-shirts will be sold exclusively through Brown Thomas Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway; BT2 Grafton Street, Blanchardstown and Dundrum, and selected A Wear stores from yesterday.
T-shirts will cost €30 and €35.
Some 95 per cent of the monies raised from sales will go to Action Breast Cancer to provide services for younger women with breast cancer.
The remaining 5 per cent of the monies raised will go to Europa Donna Ireland, a patient advocacy group which campaigns for better breast cancer services nationwide.
For further information see www.fashiontargetsbreastcancer.org
SOCIAL WORKERS'S AGM: The southern branch of the Irish Association of Social Workers is holding its first agm on Thursday, June 22nd, in The Annex, Department of Applied Social Studies, Donovan's Rd, Cork. The meeting will start at 5.30pm.
The southern branch of the Irish Association of Social Workers was re-established last October in response to a growing demand for social workers to have a regional professional body to represent them.
For further information on the meeting, please contact the committee secretary, Patricia McCarthy, at pmccarthy@enableireland.ie