Sir, - The psychiatric evidence supporting Miss C, the 13-yearold pregnant rape victim who was given permission to travel abroad by the courts once again gives credibility to the findings of those involved in suicide research of the failure both of professional and voluntary organisations in Ireland in preventing suicide among the young.
Dr Michael J. Kelleher, the most eminent suicideologist in Ireland, writing in the Maynooth publication The Furrow (July/ August 1995), in an article entitled Suicide Among The Young said: "There is little evidence that structured interventions by any group, anywhere, have been successful in reducing suicide rates, which appear to fluctuate independently of service development. In most countries, the second half of the 20th century has seen significant developments in the education and training of various professional groups - doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, nursing personnel, social workers - as well as the discovery of a variety of chemicals which are undoubtedly effective against depression.
"There is no evidence, however, that either the drugs or the professionals have reduced the suicide rate, particularly among the young, where throughout the western world there has been an increase over the past 20 years."
He went on to speak of the failures of voluntary organisations too in reducing suicide among the young and concluded that "it is essential that the suicide problem in the young be better researched and properly resourced"
This article was written just before the establishment of the National Task Force on Suicide in November 1995 by the then Minister for Health, Mr Michael Noonan. When the findings and recommendations of this group (due I believe for publication soon) are made known, maybe we will discover how many pregnant young girls seriously consider suicide as an answer to an unwanted pregnancy as a result of rape and then go on to develop appropriate care for them here at home.
It is frightening however, to think that those professionals who predict suicide in a particular case and advise abortion as a solution are not in any position, it appears, to prevent the suicide of the same young person in the long term. - Yours, etc.,
Candlemas, Inch, Killeagh, Co Cork.