ON OCTOBER 28 a healthy, bright 31-year-old woman died under incredibly tragic circumstances. The death of Galway resident Savita Halappanavar is made all the more heartbreaking by the fact that it was preventable. By all accounts, if the situation had occurred in her home country of India, the young dentist would still be alive and well.
Savita died because Irish law, as it stands, places more importance on abiding to the terms of an outdated 1983 constitutional amendment guaranteeing the rights of human embryos, than on the wellbeing of the mother.
This is despite the fact that doctors at University Hospital Galway told Savita and her husband Praveen Halappanavar on October 21 that she was undergoing a miscarriage and her 17-week-old foetus stood no chance of survival.
Savita was forced to endure severe pain for three days as she miscarried. Her requests to have a termination were denied as the foetal heartbeat was still present; doctors reportedly told the Hindu couple “this is a Catholic country”.
When the foetus was finally removed on October 24, Savita had already contracted septicaemia; she died four days later.
Sadly in this case, religion has been permitted to dictate the actions of qualified medical professionals in treating this woman.
Under the 1992 X Case ruling, the Supreme Court found that abortion is permitted in Ireland where there is a substantial risk to the mother’s life.
Twenty years later, successive governments have failed to create legislation to enact this ruling, leaving doctors in limbo in situations such as this.
Savita’s death will spark widespread debate among the pro-choice and anti-abortion camps but support for or opposition to abortion is irrelevant in this case.
That the Halappanavars’ unborn child would never survive to full term is outside anyone’s control but there is little doubt but that Savita’s needless death could have been prevented.
