I’ve been pondering this since yesterday.
A woman in Ireland, Savita Halappanavar, began to miscarry her child. She asked for an abortion but the hospital refused. Several times over a period of days while she suffered in pain.. Ultimately, the body expelled the dead fetus, but Ms. Halappanavar now had blood poisoning and she died. That’s the basic outline of the story. You can read more here or here.
I realize that, yes, abortion is illegal in Ireland. At the same time, the child was lost; she had begun to miscarry, the body was expelling the fetus, she wasn’t going to be carrying anything to term. And on the gripping hand, the European Court of Human Rights has held that Ireland must permit an abortion exception for the life of the mother.
I don’t know what Ireland’s laws are, but I hope that the doctors are charged with manslaughter (or the Irish equivalent) and depraved indifference. I hope the doctors’ medical licenses are revoked and they spend time in prison contemplating how thoroughly they failed Ms. Halappanavar. I also hope the hospital’s malpractice insurance policy takes a nice hit. The hospital and its doctors conspired to let a patient suffer and die for no reason.
That’s inhumane.
This upsets me. This angers me.
I imagine it angers you, too.