Category: Procedures & Services

A “medical misadventure” in Ireland

Deaths of Savita & Prasa Halappanavar

Galway, Ireland: 21-28 October, 2012

Sean Murphy*

Savita Halappanavar was a 31 year old woman who was 17 weeks pregnant when she presented at the University Hospital, Galway, on 21 October, 2012, with a miscarriage.  She spontaneously delivered a stillborn daughter, Prasa, on the afternoon of 24 October, and died from sepsis early on 28 October.  The circumstances of her death generated a hurricane of controversy in Ireland and around the world about Irish abortion law.  A coroner’s inquest held in Galway in April, 2013 resulted in the classification of Savita’s death as a “medical misadventure.”

What follows is a chronological account of Savita’s care and treatment from 21 to 28 October, drawn from newspaper reports of the evidence taken at the inquest.  [Read more . . .]

Related:

 

Australian physician threatened with discipline for refusing to refer for sex-selective abortion

Couple wanted a boy –  wanted to abort girl

Dr. Mark Hobart, a physician in Melbourne, Australia, refused to refer a couple for an abortion at 19 weeks gestation.  The couple wanted the abortion because they had learned that the woman was carrying a girl.  They wanted a boy, not a girl.  They found another physician without the referral and had the abortion.

Under the state of Victoria’s Abortion Law Reform Act 2008, objecting physicians are obliged to refer patients seeking abortions to a willing colleague.  The law was passed despite vigorous opposition from health care workers who protested the Act’s suppression of freedom of conscience.

Dr. Hobart is aware of the law and refuses, for reasons of conscience, to conform to it. [Herald Sun] [Related: Couple abort girl because they wanted a boy]

 

 

 

 

Irish psychiatrists reject proposed part in assessment of women seeking abortion

About one third of Irish psychiatrists who treat adults have signed a statement rejecting a draft government proposal that psychiatrists should assess women seeking who are threatening suicide.  One of a group of psychiatrists involved in discussion with the Irish government told the Irish Independent that “there is no evidence that abortion is a treatment for suicidality in pregnancy and may in fact be harmful to women.”  113 of about 300 practitioners have signed a statement to that effect. [Irish Independent]

Should medical staff be able to opt out on grounds of conscience?

scotlandtonight
Click on the image to watch the discussion.

Scotland Tonight looked at the issue of conscientious objection by health care workers following the successful appeal of midwives against an order to delegate, supervise, or support staff involved in providing abortions.

Discussion participants were Paul Tully of the pro-life group, Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, health journalist Pennie Taylor and employment lawyer Donald MacKinnon.

Appeal succeeds in Scotland: freedom of conscience upheld for midwives

A panel of judges of the Court of Session in Edinburgh, Scotland, has ruled in favour of two midwives appealing a 2012 decision by a judge of the same court.  Lady Dorrian,  Lord Mackay of Drumadoon and Lord McEwan have ruled that the midwifery sisters, Mary Doogan, and Concepta Wood, cannot be compelled to supervise the provison of abortion by the National Health Services of Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

The two women were labour ward co-ordinators at the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow and had long identified themselves as having conscientious objection to abortion.  However, in 2007, when the labour ward was made responsible for abortions, they were ordered to supervise, support and delegate staff providing the procedure.  They challenged the order as a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights on the grounds that it made them morally complicit in abortion by requiring their participation in the process of providing it.

The appelate judges said, “In our view the right of conscientious objection extends not only to the actual medical or surgical termination but to the whole process of treatment given for that purpose.” [Text of the ruling]

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde is considering an appeal of the decision. [Herald Scotland] [The Telegraph]