Madam, - I refer to the article in your Weekend Review of June 24th by Kathy Sheridan, entitled "The crucial question of ethics and genetics", in which she discusses the implications for Tallaght Hospital of the decision to base tertiary paediatric services on the Mater Hospital site.
She quotes Dr Fergus O'Ferrall of the Adelaide Hospital Society as saying that in "St James's, for example. . .the de facto Catholic approach will probably prevail".
I can assure Dr O'Ferrall that his ill-informed assumption is incorrect. St James's is a non-sectarian institution, with no religious axe to grind, where treatment is based on medical need and respect for patient autonomy. - Yours, etc,
M John Kennedy MB, FRCPI, Consultant Medical Oncologist, St James's Hospital, Dublin 8.