Savita Halappanavar’s death in last October left behind a lot of questions about Irish policy on anti-abortion laws. The main question was, could doctors able to save her life if they agreed to her request for abortion?
Apparently, she was 17 weeks pregnant when admitted to ‘Galway University Hospital’, and was found to be miscarrying. Later "an inquiry into Savita’s death found that she could have been saved had doctors not focused all their attention on saving the foetus. Doctors refused her repeated requests for abortion even when her life seemed in danger." - The Hindu.
This indeed forced Irish government to reconsider their policies on abortion. They formed a committee to investigate the matter and probably policy changes may introduce later. What concerns me here is the view of Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) on abortion.
"IMO’s annual conference in Killarney voted down a motion calling for abortion to be allowed in cases where there was a substantial risk to the life of the mother. It also rejected motions on allowing abortion in cases of rape or incest and certain other special circumstances." - The Hindu
As doctors, they have to consider patient's health first. Clinging tightly to ultraconservative anti-abortion policies, they are indeed going against the universal conventions like allowing abortion in cases like substantial problems in foetus, threatening the life of mother, pregnancy due to rape, incest etc.
Conclusion
If someone want to follow an ideology they can do it, but they don't have any right to force their opinion on others, sometimes even at the cost of valuable lives. Being doctors, they have double responsibility in assuring the welfare of their patients than sticking to Stone Age ideologies.
Sajeev.
References
1. Setback to Irish anti-abortion plans - The Hindu
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