Midwife says 'sorry' for telling a woman 'Ireland is a Catholic country' (so we will leave you to die)

[edam]

The midwife who condemned a miscarrying woman to death 'because Ireland is a Catholic country' says sorry. Big of her. Horrible litany of malpractice. And extremely worrying that you have doctors saying they believe the law stops them saving the life of a pregnant woman.

[kissmyheathenass]

This is one of the reasons I despise the catholic church.

So sad and so wrong.

[meditrina]

Well, the doctors an MW are wrong as the law in Ireland permits abortion when there is direct threat to maternal life.

They shouldn't be blaming religion for not doing what the law permits.

If, like UK, there is a conscience clause in medics' contracts, then their clear duty is to scramble to get a practitioner who will carry out the medically indicated legal procedure. Not fanny round spouting inaccuracies.

It is shocking that staff are allowed to practice without adequate training in the legal parameters.

[Shallishanti]

looks like there was incompetence there as well, they didn't act on the signs of infection

[Kveta]

Such a hideous case :(

[edam]

Meditrina - from what I've read about the case, it seems that Ireland was ordered by the EU to enact laws that permit abortion when the mother's life is threatened, but has never actually brought that legislation into force.

[ripsishere]

for the woman and her widowed husband.

[meditrina]

There is no explicit right to a termination. The 8th Amendment to the Constitution in 1983 contains the words "with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother" which means it is not illegal when there is serious risk to the mother's survival. HCPs ought to know this.

[tribpot]

But from the article at least it appeared most of the HCPs did not know there was a serious risk to the mother's survival. I think they felt they were obliged to act within the law and wait for Savita to miscarry naturally. What they then did was fail to give her adequate care during the prolonged period of the miscarriage, which allowed her to contract an infection. An infection which would probably not have arisen if they could have accelerated the miscarriage to its inevitable conclusion.

So the problem was that there was no risk to Savita's life until they botched the care up. They were the risk to Savita's life.

Not, I might add, that leaving a woman to miscarry over the course of three days would have been an acceptable level of care even if she had survived it. At least on a moral level. But it would have been in accordance with the laws of the country.

[NiceTabard]

This case is just utterly awful. So sad.

They need to throw the book at the incompetant twats who were supposed to be looking after her.

[tribpot]

The trouble is, it would be too easy to spin this as a case of medical negligence by the doctors rather than by the state. Her doctor did not act to manage the miscarriage actively as she did not believe that was legal. The staff then mismanaged the resultant infection. Both circumstances contributed to Savita's death.

[edam]

Quite, tribpot. Huge risk that anti-abortionists try to evade responsibility by blaming the doctors. Who clearly deserve some of the blame - but very far from all.

Women and children (and men, too) have suffered terribly in Ireland, through the persecution of the Catholic church, the Magdalene laundries, child abuse on a massive scale, too many horrible affronts to human dignity to count. Desperately sad, but unfortunately all too likely that Savita's death will be ignored by those responsible.

[KobayashiMaru]

It is technically legal, but it doesn't happen. Doctors just won't do it.

[edam]

Sounds like an entirely unethical abrogation of responsibility to me. And Ireland is flouting EU law by failing to enact legislation to preserve the life of pregnant women.