We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
A 74-YEAR-old woman has today lost her High Court action over a symphysiotomy procedure that was performed on her in 1963.
The woman had claimed that she suffered life-long pain after the controversial procedure, which involved breaking woman’s pelvis in order to aid the delivery a baby.
RTÉ reports the judge said that, at the time, treating doctors had reason to believe that the procedure did not generally have adverse effects.
In a statement after the judgement today, Survivors of Symphysiotomy and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) accused the State Claims Agency of fighting the woman “tooth and nail in an attempt to justify the breaking of her pelvis 12 days before the birth of her baby”.
Spokesperson Marie O’Connor said the government’s payment scheme for victims of the painful procedure “places little or no value on survivor testimony and refuses to accept reports from independent medical reports unless these reports are supported by 50 year old medical records generated by doctors, many of whom are now deceased”.
Mark Kelly, Executive Director of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties said the outcome of today’s case is “devastating” for the woman at the centre of it, but also symptomatic of the ongoing absence of effective remedies for other women in her situation.
“The onus remains on the State to ensure that, in all cases in which women allege that they have been subjected to degrading treatment of this nature, an effective investigation takes place and a remedy is provided.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Somebody should start a crowd fund for this poor poor woman, she should know that the public believe she was wronged, deserves redress and support! If it’s done I’ll be donating, I can’t imagine how she feels right now.
Why dont you go ahead and do and post the link back here. I’ll donate
I’ll donate what I can.
I would love to but ashamed to say I’m to much of a coward to take on the responsibility for it however I’m going to ask the author of the piece if they can find out if there’s somewhere we can make donations to support these victims. I couldn’t imagine what this is doing to this poor woman’s generaL health!
Horror story from the dark ages, you’d certainly hope so.
To think that this procedure was banned in France in 1798 … Holy Catholic Ireland should hang its head in shame . The suffering that poor woman went through !!
The way these women are being treated is absolutely disgraceful. is it not bad enough that they were treated so badly at the time and that they have suffered so much since? .
I’ll happily donate to a fund set up for this woman & victims of this barbaric practice in general. It’s bullshit that this was a good option in the 1950s! The same procedure was outlawed in Paris in 1798 as it was deemed barbaric. Yet some religious nut (Dev jnr amongst others) thought this was a great way to ensure a woman wouldn’t need those pesky c sections so she could go on and have loads of babies! In all fairness considering women were left incontinent and could barely walk and were in constant pain why on earth would you ever even consider getting pregnant again! I hope these women get the justice they deserve. They were butchered somebody is accountable!
Outrageous.
It means any incompetent can can claim he/she “had reason to believe that the procedure did not generally have adverse effects”, even if he didn’t have a clue or was motivated by other than medical imperatives.
I hope this is appealed.
I really hope this is appealed.
It’s like saying that when the Brothers and nuns beat the crap out of you years ago ‘it was the times that was in it’
You either have empathy or you have not. Breaking a woman’s pelvis, how could a trained Doctor ever have thought it was ok. ‘ oh that was the times that was in it’
Did those doctors ever go to bed at night and wonder what it would be like to have their pelvic bone broken!
No tears from Enda?
Oh wait, the State defended this case…
Europe I hope.
The new hep c. Wonder what Michael Noonan will have to say.
has the health minister made a statement? or is he too busy speaking on every other ministers remit?
Exactly what I thought when I heard it tonight Anne Marie. I can’t believe this poor woman lost her case. It’s barbaric. So sorry to this brave lady
I wonder how many hours of research the defending side took to ‘prove’ that doctors didn’t know this was barbaric? Surely the fact that it was later proven to be barbaric is enough? Guess they were told to hold flood gates closed until a few more victims have passed on.
This is what happens when you have a compliant passive people , this woman could be any of our mothers or grandmothers , it’s a disgrace, does anyone know how to start a crowd fund for this woman or who she is , we need to get off our arses and get rid of the establishment .
Deliberately break a woman’s pelvis in an operating theatre today and what would happen .
State rules again. That poor woman. The psychological trauma of reliving those events day in day out to a packed court room. How that judge can sleep tonight I don’t know. His hands are not tied. He is a judge. The state already offered every woman €50,000, and that was without a trial. How is it now that the judge can award nothing? Something is amiss.
Money waisted, paying lawyers yet again, while the victim isn’t redressed, enough is enough, we know these procedures shouldn’t have accrued, compensate them, ensured their health going forward , pay top class health insurance for them, and refund any expenses they have receipts for, above all in this cost conscious world stop waiting money on the courts
The judge’s reasoning was that, while it may seem unnecessary and barbaric now, at the time it was standard and accepted procedure given the knowledge available.
Make of that what you will but his hands seemed tied to some extent.
The problem with that reasoning though is that there was an alternative less damaging procedure available that they did know of but refused to use as it would mean limiting the amount of children the women could have which was against the Catholic ethos. I don’t think it took a lot of knowledge to know that a caescarean would do less damage to a woman’s body.
France outlawed the procedure in 1798 I think… that would suggest they were well ahead of us in figuring out what was barbaric. Beyond ridiculous result for this case.
Sarah you say France outlawed the procedure in 1798? This was also stated above in a post. So 217 years ago, before the advent of modern medicine, you are saying this procedure was outlawed by France? I think this highly implausible. How did they perform this procedure in the absence of anaesthesia, no knowledge of germ theory and no antiseptics? Would you lie there while your pelvis was sawed apart. I doubt it. How is this statement true?
Whether you think it’s implausible or not John R it’s true.
http://www.thejournal.ie/symphysiotomy-un-1355549-Mar2014/
Look it up yourself if you still think it’s implausible .
Inexplicable.
I have nothing but sympathy for this poor woman being tormented still because of this barbaric practice.
On a side not – and as a woman of almost this age – those hands in the picture belong to at least a 90 year old
Just like Noonan and the Hepatitis case. I feel very sorry for this poor lady.
If that’s the law then the law is surely an ass. How can it possibly be right for our government to oppose these cases?
Folks there is a survivors assistance fund you can donate here http://symphysiotomyireland.com/funding-appeal-from-survivors-of-symphysiotomy/
What type of monsters thought up and allowed symphysiotomy and why did it take so long to recognise that it existed?
State / Judiciary ????
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say