Ireland on Tuesday unveiled a 7-member team that will probe the tragic death of an Indian dentist, who was refused termination of her pregnancy despite miscarrying, and promised that the official inquiry would be fair and methodical that will take into account all factors.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) set up the inquiry team to be headed by Dr Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, a London-based obstetrician/gynaecologist, The Irish Times reported.
Savita Halappanavar, 31, died from blood poisoning at University Hospital Galway on 28 October after doctors allegedly refused to perform an abortion stating ‘this is a Catholic country’.
Philip Crowley, HSE's national director of quality and patient safety, said the inquiry would identify all the facts through a fair and methodical investigation and identify any safety issues arising.
He said the investigation would be concluded in ‘the shortest’ possible time and it will be done expeditiously.
Crowley said the inquiry team would be ‘examining all the factors that may have influenced the death of Mrs Halappanavar... The terms of reference have not been published because we are committed to sharing them with Mr Halappanavar in the first instance and until we do so we will not publish them.’
He, however, said there would be no mystery or great surprises in them.
‘There is a standard, evidence-based international approach to investigating incidents and severe adverse events and that is the approach we will be taking in this case,’ said Crowley.
‘I am not going to commit to a precise time frame because then the time frame becomes the issue. My interest is that we conduct a thorough, fair, reasonable and detailed analysis of all the events that contributed to this sad event.’
Arulkumaran said the team would over the next three days examine the case notes, look at guidelines and interview the various people involved in the treatment of Savita.
IRISH CATHOLIC BISHOPS STAKE STAND ON ABORTION
Amidst a raging debate on the country’s strict abortion laws, Ireland’s Catholic bishops have said that the church ‘has never taught that the life of a child in the womb should be preferred to that of a mother’.
Reacting to the death of Savita Halappanavar, the standing committee of the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference said last night that her passing, along with her unborn child, was ‘a devastating personal tragedy for her husband and family. It has stunned our country’.
In light of the widespread discussion following the ‘tragic death of Mrs Halappanavar and her unborn baby’, the committee wished ‘to reaffirm some aspects of Catholic moral teaching’.
The bishops said that a mother and her unborn baby were both sacred with an equal right to life.
According to The Irish Times, they said that ‘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.
‘Current law and medical guidelines in Ireland allow nurses and doctors in Irish hospitals to apply this vital distinction’.
They added: ‘Where a seriously ill pregnant woman needs medical treatment which may put the life of her baby at risk, such treatments are ethically permissible provided every effort has been made to save the life of both the mother and her baby’. Savita, 31, died in an Irish hospital last month after doctors refused to terminate her pregnancy despite telling her that she was miscarrying. She died of blood poisoning after spending three days in pain and agony.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) set up the inquiry team to be headed by Dr Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, a London-based obstetrician/gynaecologist, The Irish Times reported.
Savita Halappanavar, 31, died from blood poisoning at University Hospital Galway on 28 October after doctors allegedly refused to perform an abortion stating ‘this is a Catholic country’.
Philip Crowley, HSE's national director of quality and patient safety, said the inquiry would identify all the facts through a fair and methodical investigation and identify any safety issues arising.
He said the investigation would be concluded in ‘the shortest’ possible time and it will be done expeditiously.
Crowley said the inquiry team would be ‘examining all the factors that may have influenced the death of Mrs Halappanavar... The terms of reference have not been published because we are committed to sharing them with Mr Halappanavar in the first instance and until we do so we will not publish them.’
He, however, said there would be no mystery or great surprises in them.
‘There is a standard, evidence-based international approach to investigating incidents and severe adverse events and that is the approach we will be taking in this case,’ said Crowley.
‘I am not going to commit to a precise time frame because then the time frame becomes the issue. My interest is that we conduct a thorough, fair, reasonable and detailed analysis of all the events that contributed to this sad event.’
Arulkumaran said the team would over the next three days examine the case notes, look at guidelines and interview the various people involved in the treatment of Savita.
IRISH CATHOLIC BISHOPS STAKE STAND ON ABORTION
Amidst a raging debate on the country’s strict abortion laws, Ireland’s Catholic bishops have said that the church ‘has never taught that the life of a child in the womb should be preferred to that of a mother’.
Reacting to the death of Savita Halappanavar, the standing committee of the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference said last night that her passing, along with her unborn child, was ‘a devastating personal tragedy for her husband and family. It has stunned our country’.
In light of the widespread discussion following the ‘tragic death of Mrs Halappanavar and her unborn baby’, the committee wished ‘to reaffirm some aspects of Catholic moral teaching’.
The bishops said that a mother and her unborn baby were both sacred with an equal right to life.
According to The Irish Times, they said that ‘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.
‘Current law and medical guidelines in Ireland allow nurses and doctors in Irish hospitals to apply this vital distinction’.
They added: ‘Where a seriously ill pregnant woman needs medical treatment which may put the life of her baby at risk, such treatments are ethically permissible provided every effort has been made to save the life of both the mother and her baby’. Savita, 31, died in an Irish hospital last month after doctors refused to terminate her pregnancy despite telling her that she was miscarrying. She died of blood poisoning after spending three days in pain and agony.