EUROPE : IRELAND : BISHOPS SPEAK ON DEATH OF PREGNANT MOTHER

CATHOLIC HERALD REPORT

Irish bishops: doctors must try to save mother even if child may die as a result

By SARAH MACDONALD on Thursday, 22 November 20

Tributes to Savita Halappanavar in Dublin (Photo: PA)

Ireland’s Catholic bishops have said pregnant women must receive all treatment to save their lives, even if it results in the unintended death of an unborn child.

The bishops were responding to an outpouring of public anger over the death of a pregnant woman following a miscarriage in an Irish hospital.

In their statement they expressed anguish and shock at the deaths of Savita Halappanavar, 31, and her unborn child. Mrs Halappanavar died after hospital medical staff determined they could not end the child’s life because they could detect a foetal heart beat, even as the woman’s husband, Praveen, urged them to save his wife’s life.

Mrs Halappanaver’s death at University Hospital Galway has prompted thousands of people to take to the streets calling for the country’s constitutional ban on abortion to be overturned.

In its statement, the Standing Committee of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference described the case as “a devastating personal tragedy” for the Halappanavar family and acknowledged that the circumstances of her death had “stunned our country”.

The bishops sought to clarify Church teaching on the need for medical intervention to save the life of a mother. The bishops said they believed Ireland’s medical guidelines contained adequate ethical provisions to allow medical staff to intervene as long as necessary steps had been taken to save both mother and unborn child.

The bishops insisted that the Catholic Church has never taught that the life of a child in the womb should be preferred to that of a mother.

“Whereas abortion is the direct and intentional destruction of an unborn baby and is gravely immoral in all circumstances, this is different from medical treatments which do not directly and intentionally seek to end the life of the unborn baby,” the bishops said in their statement.

The bishops also said that Ireland was a safe place for expectant mothers.

Pointing to international health care data, the bishops said: “Ireland, without abortion, remains one of the safest countries in the world in which to be pregnant and to give birth. This is a position that should continue to be cherished and strengthened in the interests of mothers and unborn children in Ireland.”

The maternal mortality rate in Ireland stands at 4.1 per 100,000 births and is among the lowest in Europe.

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin had earlier told the American Catholic News Service that he believed doctors, nurses and midwives “set out always to save lives”.

“The fact that our maternal mortality is so low is a sign that there is something that is working well in the system,” he said.

Meanwhile, pro-life campaigners have expressed concern at the appointment of Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, head of obstetrics and gynecology at St George’s, University of London, as chairman of a Health Service Executive inquiry into Mrs Halappanavar’s death. They cited a 2009 statement in which he argued that abortion should be a legal right for women.

Contributing to this story was Michael Kelly in Dublin.

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