Staff at Galway University hospital given limited sanctions for role in death of Indian dentist who was refused an abortion
The Guardian
Nine members of the Irish medical team that treated an Indian dentist who died after being refused an abortion have been disciplined.
Galway University hospital said the nine were part of a larger medical team looking after Savita Halappanavar before she died from blood poisoning in October 2012.
Halappanavar had demanded that her pregnancy be terminated after fearing the foetus was dead and likely to give her sepsis. Her request was turned down after medical staff said they detected a foetal heartbeat. She was 17 weeks pregnant and miscarrying when she fell ill. [Full text]
The legal prohibition of abortion in Ireland at the time Savita Halappanavar was in hospital has been repeatedly cited in media reports as having led to her death. However, an emergency induction/abortion of the kind contemplated in the new Irish abortion law was legal at that time and had already been decided upon when she spontaneously delivered a stillborn daughter.