Pregnant woman dies in UCHG after being refused a termination

Cookie_Monster wrote: »

depends on what he valued more, his nutjob religious belief or his Hippocratic oath.

With out legislation, he could not have acted due to the current and exsisting polices and if he had of, he would have been struck off, sued and never got insurance to practice again.

The lack of legislation for the last 20 years ties the hands of drs who want to save lives.

That's awful RIP

af_thefragile wrote: »

But such scenarios are never as black and white. Its not that if the fetus was removed early she wouldn't have ended up getting an infection and septicaemia. There are many risks and complications associated with miscarriage. There might be some issue of poor protocols and guidelines for acting in such situations which is more of an issue for the HSE to deal with to bring in proper guidelines for when such a situation arises.

If it is agreed the foetus is no longer viable really that makes the above argument moot, the risk of complications is a secondary issue. There is no point in making the woman suffer more.

What I'm trying to say is don't make it a issue that pro-choicers use as propaganda to beat up the pro-lifers and the catholic church with.

Well I'd be quite pro life so no propaganda here, just frustration at trying to save a baby that had no chance of life because of some concern over rules about abortion.

Also many doctors in Ireland are fairly lenient towards abortions. They won't do it themselves but if someone really needs it, they'll happily refer them to a hospital in UK where they can get it done. The only issue might be towards implementing proper guidelines for emergencies as such.

Irish women have a right to information on abortion so I don't think they are doing anything illegal. Plenty would give you their wrath for just being a teenager looking for the morning after pill though.

Sharrow wrote: »

With out legislation, he could not have acted due to the current and exsisting polices and if he had of, he would have been struck off, sued and never got insurance to practice again.

Like I said, if they're capable of rationalising letting a women die because of the damage it would do to them professionally then not only are they unfit to be a doctor but unfit to live in society at all.

Being insane enough to act in that way is common enough but you'd have to be a serious sociopath to put your career ahead of someone else's life in such a way.

Corkfeen wrote: »

Legally they can't do so at this point in time.

Really well that's untrue. It is fully legal for termination in Ireland if the woman's life is at risk Fully legal.

But please show proof otherwise.......

any politician who's been a cabinet minister or prominent in a leading party over the last 20 years has this womans blood on their hands.

and to be fair; to some extent so do the rest of us who didn't actively protest various governments not legislating for this

I was googling to find out what the actual law is here. I assumed that termination was legal to protect the mothers life but it seems that it isn't legislated for.

Only two months ago the Irish Times printed this article about a conference in Dublin on the issue. I've copied a precis of the article below:

AN INTERNATIONAL symposium on maternal healthcare in Dublin at the weekend has concluded that abortion is never medically necessary to save the life of a mother.

While many of the organisers have been involved in anti-abortion events in the past, a spokesman for the group, Dr Eoghan de Faoite, told The Irish Times the event was not linked in any way to the Pro-Life Campaign or any other organisation.

“All organisers were involved in their professional capacity and were not here to represent any pro-life position,” he said.

Prof O’Dwyer and a panel of speakers also formally agreed a “Dublin declaration” on maternal healthcare. It stated: “As experienced practitioners and researchers in obstetrics and gynaecology, we affirm that direct abortion is not medically necessary to save the life of a woman.

“We uphold that there is a fundamental difference between abortion and necessary medical treatments that are carried out to save the life of the mother, even if such treatment results in the loss of life of her unborn child.

“We confirm that the prohibition of abortion does not affect, in any way, the availability of optimal care to pregnant women.”

I really hope this woman wasn't a victim of the "Dublin declaration".

It will be interesting to see if the media are able to find out who her medical team were and if Prof O’Dwyer, Dr John Monaghan, Dr John Greene, Dr Eoghan de Faoite, Sinéad Dennehy or any other forum attendees were among them.

Stheno wrote: »

Here is where the seperation of legal powers comes in.

The courts rule what is lawful.
If that is not currently written into our laws, the government must legislate.

Over twenty years the government have failed to address the issue of the 92 ruling as they (successive governments) fear the consequences of doing so from the pro-life lobby.

The govt. have even been taken to the ECHR and ignored it.

So it is still unlawful under any circumstance to perform an abortion in Ireland.

But couldn't a doctor go to the High Court/European Court of Human Rights and get any decision overturned in any case regardless of whether he is found guilty because of government inaction?