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AONTÚ TD PEADAR Tóibín has stated in the Dáil that the couple at the centre of an abortion carried out at the National Maternity Hospital after a misdiagnosis have alleged that it was an “illegal abortion”.
Tóibín was speaking to Taoiseach Leo Varadkar under Dáil privilege in relation to a case which concerns a couple who, earlier this year, were told their baby had a fatal foetal abnormality.
It is understood that an abortion was then carried out at over 15 weeks.
It was thought the baby had Trisomy18, also known as Edwards Syndrome, but a series of genetic tests later found that was not the case.
Speaking today, Tóibín said that he had spoken with the legal representative of the family.
“This is a desperately tragic case. The family were falsely told that the child had a fatal foetal abnormality. The couple claim that their child would be with them today, were it not for the actions of the hospital,” he said.
“They state that it was an illegal abortion and that the medical practitioner who signed off on the abortion never examined or met the mother her in advance of the abortion.
If that is the case, it is contrary to the law brought in by the Government and it is illegal.
‘Ignored by the government’
Tóibín said that the family felt that their calls “had been ignored by the government”.
“The family state that their calls for an independent investigation have been ignored by the Government and that they have had no real input into the terms of reference of the internal review which the Government is planning,” he said.
Varadkar stated last month that an independent review was to be carried out into the case. The Taoiseach said in May that “steps are being taken for an independent review to be undertaken”.
Tóbín also stated that the family were shocked “by allegations that the medical professionals signing off on the abortions have a commercial interest in the companies that produced the fatally insufficient test”.
“This week, the bereaved family were shocked to hear that the State Claims Agency will indemnify the private company that carried out the fatally insufficient tests,” he said.
“They are furious with the Taoiseach for stating in the Dáil that this is a confidential issue.
They believe he is seeking to sweep this illegal abortion under the carpet. Will the Government change the law, institute guidelines and carry out a fully independent investigation?
Speaking in reply, Varadkar said it was “an individual case and a private matter”.
“I am not party to all of the information from the family affected or… from the hospital’s side,” he said.
“I do not wish to get involved in commenting on an individual case, even one that is very sad, such as this one, particularly when there may be legal proceedings under way.
However, I understand that the Minister, Deputy Harris, wants and expects an external inquiry into the facts of the case to be carried out.
In a statement in response to Tóibín’s clams, a spokesperson for the National Maternity Hospital stated:
“The National Maternity Hospital, despite what was alleged by Peadar Toibin in the Dail today, is actively engaged in commissioning an external review of this sensitive case.”
The spokesperson said that the family had been informed that the UK Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists had been requested to perform the external review, but it was not in a position to do so.
“Since then significant progress has been made with RCOG in respect of membership of the external review and the terms of reference and we hope to be in a position to finalise these shortly,” the spokesperson said.
“It was not the hospital’s intention to make any comment at this stage but we felt it necessary to respond to matters stated under parliamentary privilege which the Deputy suggests is an account given to him by a legal representative of the family.
It is not the intention of the hospital to comment further pending the outcome of the review.
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I wonder if someone did take him out 30 years ago, would Zimbabwe be the basket case he turned it into, or would some other “leader”, equally malingnant have just taken his place.
It’s tempting to write Africa off, but these things are not inevitable. The neighbours in Botswana were a landlocked, diamond rich former colony. Not an obvious candidate for success. And yet they were, partly because of Seretse Khama’s leadership, but also because people kept voting for him.
Unfortunately, for every relative success story there are 50 failed states. Nation building is hard and requires guts, enterprise, selflessness and vision. Mugabe wasn’t even asked to nation build. He was handed a fully functioning, very rich and successful country and managed to level it in less than a generation. That takes mean spiritness, stupidity, and the most crass selfishness and myopic vision, which, unfortunately, seems to be the calibre of most African leaders. Take and destroy is what they do and in the meantime, the west continues to do what the west does best. Assuage our feelings of western guilt by feeding, clothing and vaccinating the Africans left behind by their very own “leaders”.
We can write much of Africa off if the Chinese economy falters, And also, we can take Australia with it.
Problem with africa is its full of africans
“Unfortunate event”
In who’s eyes ????
Funny that at Mandela’s memorial when the camera would go to different world leaders the crowd would cheer or boo depending on who it was on. Mugabe got a massive cheer and Bush Jnr got a massive boo. Ya no your screwed when Mugabe gets a bigger cheer than ya!
It was an ANC crowd at the funeral & Mugabe was a big supporter if the ANC during apartheid times so I’d be sure that’s why he was cheered rather than for his recent policies.
That says a lot more about the crowd than it does about Bush Jr.
Whatever you can accuse Bush Jr. of, laying waste to his country, starving his people, killing the productive farmers and having an ugly greedy, mean wife isnt among them. An ANC crowd can turn into a vicious mob at the turn of a hair. Being rational abd discerning is not their thing.
Hurricane Katrina anyone? ;)
Sadly, probably the latter.
Problem with Africa is the tribal government system, and the mentality of it’s people.
@coom
Same could be said for a lot of countries..including ours!
Christina who wrote that paper? Dept of the Taoiseach?
While it is true that Robert Mugabe has a few character flaws, it cannot be denied that he is an active leader who stands up for his people. Much better than the shower we have running this country, he is. You can bet Robert Mugabe would have burned the bondholders and sent the IMF home with a flea in their ear.
Pity he didn’t have a fatal “accident” here.
Proably after totruring them first…Thing is we can elect another incompetant shower to govern us.Mugabe is there forever like a big black blood sucking tick on Zimbabwae.But then thats what happens if you let Marxist gun waving loons loose on a perfectly functioning and producing ,albeit not without is fault state.Turn it into a dictatorship that makes the previous oppression by whomever look like paradise.
have your say