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Happy they would not do anything to end the life of the foetus - they would not induce labour or perform a c-section while the foetus still had a heart beat even though the mother's waters had broken and there was no chance of the foetus surviving. As soon as the foetal heart stopped beating they performed surgery to remove the foetus, but it was too late by then. Utterly horrific, and I hope someone faces charges for this. I doubt it somehow though.

This is truly an awful event.

AThingInYourLife has put it very well. It is pro-lifers who cannot/won't/refuse to think outside of the box, and feel they have a right to force their beliefs on the world, these are the people with a death on their hands.

I wonder how they will justify this death.

This is why you cannot have equal priority enshrined in law of the life of the fetus with the life of the mother. The mother's health HAS to take priority or they will both die.

This is such a tragic event because it was completely preventable.

Poor woman, and her poor poor DH who has now lost his wife and all the future babies they could have had.
Criminally tragic.

The best we can hope for out of this is that the medical team forced to make this decision (and goodness, they must be feeling wretched) LEAD (along with others) a strong move to get the law changed. Who would want to go into medecine and be forced to let a woman die so needlessly?

And hopefully national and international outrage will be stirred up and the shameful, mediaeval, misogynist thinking enshrined in Irish law will come under a harsh spotlight.

The Irish government and the catholic church have no right to treat women as disposable. To effectively imprison women in their own bodies, left to certain death. . Actually barely covers it.

We fight the Taliban and this is sanctioned, piously sanctioned, just across the Irish sea?

I am writing my letter now while my rage is boiling.

Just to clarify, I don't know why exactly, but 'driving to Belfast' wouldn't have been an option. Irish women in this position have to go overseas, not just across the border.

This tragic case is one of clinical negligence. Abortion is legal if it occurs during lifesaving treatment of the mother. They were clinically wrong in their assessment of Savita. The staff were negligent and should be thoroughly ashamed and held to account. I'm horrified and heartbroken for this poor woman's family.

I don't really understand how it was allowed to happen, even in Ireland. I hope it's just a one-off fuckup and not what they normally do in a similar case, but it's not quite clear from the article.

I'm not sure I could live in a country like that.

The doctors were not "forced" to do anything. They should have acted in he best interests of the woman in front of them fighting for her life. They should have had the balls to risk going to prison to do the right thing. Cowards.

I hope her husband drags Ireland through the courts. Fucking vile culture of misogyny.

Good post Calming.

I can't for the life of me see why there should be any mention of religion in a medical discussion.

I hope her husband drags Ireland through the courts. Fucking vile culture of misogyny.
Please don't tar the entire country with the same brush. Everyone over here is just as horrified at the barbarity of it as you are.

It's not a one off.

Not by a long shot.

It's just that Savita and her family didn't understand what they were dealing with.

Someone - if you are all horrified in Ireland - rise up and do something about it.

Bloody hell.

"Pro-life". what a joke.

"Please don't tar the entire country with the same brush."



Vile culture of misogyny barely comes close to capturing the appalling treatment of pregnant women under Irish law.

Being all appalled when the totally fucking inevitable happens is hand-wringing nonsense.

If it is right that the responsibility here rests with a negligent medical team I nevertheless hope that the government and church are not able to shrug this off and wash their hands of it - for the account of her DH stronly implies that the hospital believed it was following protocol.

Sympathy and support to Irish women and men enduring these throwback laws, and protesting them.

'Fucking vile culture of misogyny'

I know not everyone in Ireland is anti-abortion but I do agree that there is a culture of misogyny there. As a poster on another thread says, there is a culture of 'do what I say, not what I do' and non-conformity is generally frowned on. People are generally brought up to be absolutely deferential to those in power. Successive governments have failed to address the abortion issue - I know that most people in the country are actually pro-choice but the country's leaders take a 'not on our turf' approach to the issue. So women are treated as second-class (at best) citizens

It is really appalling that Turkey (for example) has not been allowed to join the EU because of human rights abuses, but Ireland is considered to be a core member and a civilised, modern country.

So they killed another human being for this . The government and all involved in this woman's death have blood on their hands

I agree with athing, we can't blame the medical staff for this, they were operating within the law.

there was a massive march last month in dublin calling for the x case to be legislated for , the turnout was large and initially massively under reported , its not the people who let this happen its the government who refuse to legislate and the media who refuse to report correctly.

The catholic churches hold on Ireland as a nation has loosened greatly but we are not being given the chance to show this through referendums , they are still a loud voice but are largely ignored by everyone but politicians

"The hospital was only following protocal"

smacks of "i was just following orders"

Do doctors, social workers etc need pieces of paper to tell them what is right?

The hospital was following protocol

The pro-lifers who created the conditions under which such inhumanely protocol became necessary are now lying and pretending this was a freakish one off.

It wasn't.

It is the logical outcome of the policies they support.

http://www.fpa.org.uk/campaignsandadvocacy/reproductiverights/abortioninnorthernireland

www.fpa.org.uk/campaignsandadvocacy/reproductiverights/abortioninnorthernireland