Madam, - The suggestion by Prof Fiona Mulcahy of St James's Hospital that there should be "mandatory testing for HIV of all pregnant women" (the Irish Times, April 22nd) is reprehensible, outrageous and insulting to moral standards.
There must be many, many thousands of married couples, living in faithfulness to each other, who know as fact that they are not HIV-carriers, that they can trust their spouses 100 per cent, and that therefore the risk of HIV in pregnancy cannot arise; and they have every right to feel utterly ignored, indeed betrayed, by Prof Mulcahy's suggestion.
The old French nuns' method of punition générale ("punish the whole class in order to catch the troublemakers") is long out of date in social and behavioural terms, and I am shocked that Prof Mulcahy should seek to return to its equivalent, in her field, now.
There needs to be the most intensive action to combat the scourge of HIV and perhaps (I joke not!) this should include a Junior Minister in the Department of Health whose sole brief would be to encourage chastity and continence. Prof Mulcahy's suggestion, in reducing everything to the lowest common denominator, lacks precision and imagination, and I venture to suggest that she should feel thoroughly ashamed of herself. - Yours, etc.,
Dr MARTIN PULBROOK, Enniscoffey, Co Westmeath.