Savita Halappanavar’s death has renewed calls for Irish law to be modified to allow termination if mother’s life is at risk
A woman of Indian origin has died after doctors in Ireland refused to perform an abortion, telling her that “this is a Catholic country”, sparking widespread outrage and renewed calls for immediate reforms to the Irish law to allow termination if the life of the mother is at risk.
Savita Halappanavar (31), who was a dentist, was 17 weeks pregnant when she died from septicaemia, according to an autopsy carried out two days after her death on Oct 28. Her family said she asked several times for her termination as she had severe back pain and was miscarrying but doctors at University Hospital Galway refused on the grounds that abortion was illegal in Ireland.
Her husband Praveen Halappanavar said he was certain that his wife would have still been alive if the termination had been allowed.
It was her first pregnancy, he said, and she was “on top of the world” before she started suffering back pain. When the pain persisted, she asked her consultant if she could be “induced” but was told “no”.
“They said unfortunately she can’t because it’s a Catholic country. Savita said to her [consultant] she is not Catholic, she is Hindu, and why impose the law on her. But she said, ‘I’m sorry, unfortunately it’s a Catholic country,’ and it’s the law that they can’t abort when the foetus is [alive],” he said.
The hospital has launched an internal investigation in addition to a separate inquiry ordered by Ireland’s Health Service Executive.
Mr. Halappanavar recalled that Savita “was so happy and everything was going well” until she was admitted to hospital with back pain.
“On the Saturday [Oct 20] night everything changed. She started experiencing back pain so we called the hospital, the university hospital... I got a call at about half [past] twelve on the Wednesday night that Savita’s heart rate had really gone up and that they had moved her to ICU. “Things just kept on getting worse and on Friday they told me that she was critically ill.” Savita died on Sunday.
Ireland Prime Minister Enda Kenny did not rule out an independent inquiry as pro-choice groups demanded immediate changes to the law.
“It would be very appropriate that we don’t rule anything out here, but there are two reports and investigations going on at the moment,” Mr. Kenny said.
Ireland’s strict anti-abortion law means that women routinely go abroad for abortion. Earlier this year, the government set up an expert group to make recommendations in response to a judgment of the European Court of Human Rights judgment that Ireland had failed to implement existing rights to lawful abortion where a mother’s life was at risk.
Left-wing MPs Clare Daly and Joan Collins, who had introduced a bill in Parliament earlier this year to allow an abortion in specific life-threatening circumstances, said that had their proposals been accepted, Savita would have been alive.
“A woman has died because Galway University Hospital refused to perform an abortion needed to prevent serious risk to her life.
“This is a situation we were told would never arise. An unviable foetus — the woman was having a miscarriage — was given priority over the woman’s life, who unfortunately and predictably developed septicaemia and died,” Ms Daly said.
Keywords: septicaemia, Galway University Hospital, abortion, miscarriage, illegal termination, abortion laws
We need not undertake any radical reform/revolution over and over again, and history has shown that things quickly come back to the old and there is revolt against the revolution ultimately. But there is no DOUBT that there needs to be change and IRELAND needs to change. It can keep its catholicism, but such stranglehold of religion MUST never be allowed. When it comes to sanity and reason, that MUST prevail, not BLIND faith.
As long as religious beliefs takes over common sense and logic, these
things will happen. No god will like his followers who behave foolishly,
and irrationally with fellow human beings. If we can't save a life,
which is save able here on earth how come we think about heaven after
our death? The pragmatic leaders in the government and society with
reasonable religious leaders should make sure proper laws are enacted so
to make sure human rights are not violated in living human beings and
even in unborns.
Nov 17, 2012, Every body is saying about an adult's life, hardly
people are concerned about a child's life. "It is absolutely sickening
to see the world take advantage of a woman's death and the -loss of
her child and use it to justify the day-in-day-out slaughter of pre-
born children. Abortion rights advocates may be rejoicing at the death
of Savita Halappanavar and making her a poster child for their cause,
but this situation has nothing whatsoever to do with the right to
purposefully destroy pre-born human beings because they are unplanned
or unwanted. Savita died from medical malpractice, not from being
denied the right to get an abortion. She wanted her child to live."
Excerpts from a pro life poster.
I have lived in the west for over 20 years now. Few years back an abortion doctor
in Wichita, Kansas was shot in front of his family for practicing abortion. He had
practiced medicine despite threats from christian fundamentalists as he believed
that he was saving lives like that of Savita.
When you consider the above and also the sexual abuse by some priests all
over Europe and the US, without a modicum of mention in the indian news outlets,
one wonders the ethics of journalism practiced in india.
I agree with Hamoth. Why was the septicemia not detected?
My sympathy goes out to the woman's husband. May God comfort him in his loss.
Abortion is a crime and sin to kill a human life even if it is unborn.
But if life of a mother is so critical and could save her by abortion,
should perform abortion, no doubt about it.
Religion can not come before human life. So-called "developed" countries should take strong cognizance of the matter and should put pressure on Ireland to reconsider this outdated and inhuman law.
Refusing a dying woman an abortion is not the Catholic religion. This is mismanagement by the hospital because the law is poorly written. My wife's tubal pregnancy was terminated because she would have died. And the Church approved of it. This needs to be fixed and it's not the Catholic Church that needs fixing, it's Ireland's laws.
This incident will turn few hundred believers in religion to atheism .
This is the tragic result when the "state" interferes in name of some reason,
religious orthodoxy in this case, in what should be a well reasoned private decision
between the patient and the physician. By focussing solely on the life of the yet to
born child, the life of the mother is sacrificed in the altar of ideological purity. This
is yet another clear signal that women have a long way to go before they achieve
equality in the eyes of the state, even in the progressive European Union.To blame
this solely on the Roman Catholicism of Ireland would be inaccurate. After all
women have privacy in these matters in France and Italy with deep Catholic
traditions. Even in a deeply Protestant country like the USA, the access to
reproductive freedom for women is an ongoing and deeply divisive issue. What
Catholic Ireland and Protestant USA have in common is extremely orthodox
patriarchal social mores, that limit women's freedom.
The end result is that both mother and child are now dead.
deplorable and condemnable!! Just imagine an irish getting this in india - there would have been sanctions, probably even a blockade, people would have starved in the millions!!
This is a case of mismanagement.Country's law forbids abortion.But fact here is her cervix fully dialated not expelled products of conception with back ache not on antibiotics initially sounds absourd.Normal medical knowledge says common cause of failure to progress is infection inide the uterus inspite of cervix dilated.Allowing to happen chorioamnitis and baby to die, septecemia to occur ,then start antibiotics,later decided to surgical interference (mortality is going to be high following septecemia) sounds mismanagement.
Because of some religious beliefs, two people dies instead of
one.
She could have travelled to UK or elsewhere.
This is so sick !
How can we still put religion before life - and in this day and age?!