Madam, – May I express my deep dismay at the news that the Irish Council for Bioethics is to lose its funding and cease to exist. Having been a member of the council in its first term, I must record my appreciation for and admiration of the great expertise and enthusiasm of the membership, in particular the legal, ethical, medical, scientific and other members who volunteered their services so unreservedly. Your report (Home News, December 16th) summarises well the principal achievements of the council which has undertaken studies on a range of topics of importance to the public – patient consents, living wills, embryonic stem-cell research and the like – and has published a series of key documents and reports. For each study, the council has actively sought the views of the general public and has represented such views objectively and comprehensively in its publications. The high quality of these documents reflects, too, the great contributions of Dr Siobhán O’Sullivan (whose reported comments I support fully) and her three colleagues, who form the secretariat, which oversaw the production of each publication.
As scientific director, Dr O’Sullivan has represented the council at meetings of comparable international bodies, and is fully aware of the negative consequences of Ireland’s future absence.
Finally, when I read of the recent Supreme Court decision and comments in regard to embryos, I thought of them as a perfect justification – if one were needed – for the activities of the council. – Yours, etc,