Ireland opens new probe into death of woman denied abortion

[DonViejo]

Source: Reuters

By Lorraine Turner and Conor Humphries
DUBLIN | Fri Nov 23, 2012 11:54am EST
(Reuters) - Ireland has opened a new investigation into the death of a woman denied an abortion of her dying fetus, as the government scrambled to stem criticism of its handling of an incident that polarized the overwhelmingly Catholic country.

Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year old dentist, was admitted to hospital in severe pain on October 21 and asked for a termination after doctors said her baby would not survive, according to husband Praveen, but in a country with some of the world's most restrictive abortion laws, surgeons would not remove the fetus until its heartbeat stopped days later.

Husband Praveen Halappanavar, who believes the delay contributed to the blood poisoning that killed his wife on October 28, has said he would not cooperate with an investigation already launched by the country's health service because he did not believe it would be neutral.

On Friday, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) watchdog, which is government-funded but independent of the state health service, said it had also launched an investigation after receiving information from the health service and University Hospital Galway, where Halappanavar died.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/23/us-ireland-abortion-idUSBRE8AM0MB20121123

[SoapBox]

1. Is it going to be a serious investigation...

or just end up blaming "the woman" for her own death.

Just thinking of the twisted anti-abortion mentality.

[McCamy Taylor]

4. She is a dentist, so it will be hard to blame her.

More likely they will set up some committee that is supposed to "review" cases like this as they happen. And the Catholic Church will make sure to pack these committees with anti-abortion folks who rubber stamp "Mom must die!" on every petition, unless the mother is not Catholic, in which case she will get reasonable medical care to avoid another international incident. The Catholics will all be condemned to death "for the good of their souls."

So, if you are pregnant and having am abruption/placenta previa/early loss of amniotic fluid in Ireland, for God's sake, tell the triage nurse that you are Hindu/Buddhist/Anglican.

[freshwest]

8. Did I miss something? I thought they knew she was a Hindu. What she was asking for was medical care,

not religious counseling from a priest.

Even if she had been Catholic, is it required that one must die to assure one's place in Heaven or whatever they consider more important than life?

More 'pro-life' barbarism, and exactly what the wingnuts want imposed on women here.

[DonViejo]

10. In the Catholic faith, if the choice is between the life of the mother

or her unborn child, saving the life of the baby wins.

[sheshe2]

12. +1000!

[freshwest]

13. Yes, must be a branch of the GOP = the Grotesque Odious Party! UGH!

[sheshe2]

14. LOL!

[McCamy Taylor]

2. The EU needs to step in. If a small US state did this, the feds would be all over them.

And the doctors need to be charged with murder.

[valerief]

3. Damn straight. nt

[freshwest]

7. Agreed.

[McCamy Taylor]

5. Does anyone have the names and pictures of this woman's doctors?

The murders should be identified so that people know to avoid them.

I write this as a U.S. physician. If I knew that any OB in my community did something like this, I would advise all my patients to run not walk away from the doctor.

[McCamy Taylor]

6. Galway/Roscommon University Hospitals Group

is all I can find online. Would love to know if all doctors in this group would act the same or if this was a rogue physician.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/23/world/europe/ireland-abortion-controversy/index.html

[obamanut2012]

9. The law needs to be changed

So people aren't afraid of being arrested or losing their license. It is ridiculous! It's almost 2013 and they are part of the EU.

[silhouete2]

11. Good

That woman should have never died. I am a catholic myself, and this story upsets me to no end. This is the kind of stuff that makes me hate organized religion. That child was wanted, but that child was going to die--and for those doctors to sit by and do nothing to help that woman becuase by law the unborn child wasn't yet completely dead---that is murder in my opinion. I don't care what the law says--those doctors HAD to know that allowing that unborn child to stay inside that mother could possibly kill her. She was in that hospital room for several days!! They did nothing. What is this--the 19th century? I hope those laws change--because we are going to see more of this as time goes on.