On a Tragic and Unnecessary Death in Ireland

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.

Published by Allyn

A writer, editor, journalist, sometimes coder, occasional historian, and all-around scholar, Allyn Gibson is the writer for Diamond Comic Distributors' monthly PREVIEWS catalog, used by comic book shops and throughout the comics industry, and the editor for its monthly order forms. In his over ten years in the industry, Allyn has interviewed comics creators and pop culture celebrities, covered conventions, analyzed industry revenue trends, and written copy for comics, toys, and other pop culture merchandise. Allyn is also known for his short fiction (including the Star Trek story "Make-Believe,"the Doctor Who short story "The Spindle of Necessity," and the ReDeus story "The Ginger Kid"). Allyn has been blogging regularly with WordPress since 2004.

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