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THE INQUEST INTO the death of Savita Halappanavar in Galway will enter its fourth day today.
Proceedings are due to resume at 10am at Galway Courthouse to establish the facts surrounding the death of the 31-year-old dentist, who died on 28 October last year from complications resulting from septicaemia.
Consultant obstetrician Dr Katherine Astbury was cross-examined yesterday about whether she refused to terminate the pregnancy because of Ireland’s Catholic ethos.
Astbury said that there had been a “systems failure” in how Savita Halappanavar was treated, RTE News reports. She told the inquest that she had not carried out a termination because it would not have been legal to do so under Ireland’s current framework which does not permit abortion where there is a risk to the health – as opposed to the life – of the woman involved.
Separately midwife Ann Maria Burke told the inquest that she had made the comment first highlighted by Savita’s husband Praveen about a termination not being an option because Ireland is a Catholic country.
Almost 70 statements have been taken for the inquest from people involved in the case, but not all of them will be called as witnesses to the inquest, which is expected to last several more days.
It’s sad that Savita died. She should not have died. May she rest in peace. She should have received the medical treatment necessary to save her life. It’s sad that some “ignorant” people blame her death on the teachings of the Catholic Church! Sad!
To put the record straight the teaching of the Catholic Church is that the life of the mother takes precedence over the life of the child but if possible the medical profession should try to save the life of the child as well as the life of the mother – if medically possible. That is a judgement call of the medical profession – not of the Catholic Church. If the medical profession made an error of judgment they should admit it. Pro Abortion Groups are deliberately misquoting the Law in order to force the Government to legislate for abortion! Surely the Government are not naive? Or are they?
The European Court of Justice did NOT direct the Irish Government to legislate for abortion – it directed the Irish Government to clarify the legislation. It does NOT give the Government authority to legislate for abortion. The medical profession now agree that the treat of suicide is no grounds for an abortion. The wording of the 1982 Constitutional amendment was and is flawed. The then Attorney General advised the Taoiseach of the day Charles J Haughty that the wording he put in the Referendum was flawed. So members of GOVERNMENT note the correct facts of history.
Savita is death and i think everybody have enough of her story just please change tune and go have babies in india if Ireland so bad
May I express my comment through this poem I composed on Savita?
THE EDICT OF LIFE
I was a foetus: the future crown
of womanhood, growing
in the warmth of your womb,
cradled in a web of dreams:
for you the caring motherhood,
for me an ever receding skyline.
Suddenly something happened;
you started miscarrying;
frantically your fingers moved
over the belly to feel
if my heart was beating.
A faint, assuring movement
throbbed beneath your palm.
Then it grew fainter and fainter,
ceasing to pulsate any longer.
And you asked for a termination.
But they denied you the choice:
an insentient foetus
still a precious gift of God,
forbidden for expulsion.
Agony prolonged; then, at last,
your life, a divine gift too,
was aborted instead;
a painful, senseless death
shattered dreams on the altar of edict.
A.K. Das, India
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