Sunday 18 November 2012

Would Savita have lived if Ireland was a pro-choice country?

On October 28th Savita Halappanavar, a 31 year old dentist who was 17 weeks pregnant, died from septicaemia after doctors failed to induce birth because they detected a heart beat saying that terminations are not allowed in Ireland. Allegedly they gave the excuse, "This is a Catholic country."

However, it should be pointed out that had the doctors induced an early labour to save Savita's life it would have been neither against Irish law nor against Catholic teaching.

Professor John Bonnar, then chairman of the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, gave this comment at the All Party Oireachtas Committee's Fifth Report on Abortion, saying:

"In current obstetrical practice, rare complications can arise where therapeutic intervention is required at a stage in pregnancy when there will be little or no prospect for the survival of the baby, due to extreme immaturity.

In these exceptional situations failure to intervene may result in the death of both the mother and baby. We consider that there is a fundamental difference between abortion carried out with the intention of taking the life of the baby, for example for social reasons, and the unavoidable death of the baby resulting from essential treatment to protect the life of the mother."

It is this good medical practice that means that Ireland has one of the lowest mortality rates in the world. Unicef rated the lifetime chance of maternal mortality in Ireland as one in 17,800.

Although no one religion should guide the making of law it is important to note that Catholic teaching also permits induced labour in these circumstances.

Pope Pius in 1951 said, “the saving of the life of the future mother … should urgently require a surgical act or other therapeutic treatment which would have as an accessory consequence, in no way desired nor intended, but inevitable, the death of the fetus, such an act could no longer be called a direct attempt on an innocent life. Under these conditions the operation can be lawful, like other similar medical interventions — granted always that a good of high worth is concerned, such as life, and that it is not possible to postpone the operation until after the birth of the child, nor to have recourse to other efficacious remedies.”

Quotes are taken from http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/1117/1224326702610.html

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/eils-mulroy-prochoice-side-must-not-hijack-this-terrible-event-3294723.html

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2012/11/15/the-tragic-death-of-savita-halappanavar-should-not-be-exploited-to-sweep-away-irish-abortion-law-under-which-she-could-legally-have-been-saved/#.UKUCuqMlBzk.twitter

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