Comments on: Woman’s death poses tough abortion questions for India and Ireland

By: laurafbrown

laurafbrown — Thu, 22 Nov 2012 04:42:13 +0000

I am a college professor and a mother. Several years ago I, too, suffered a difficult and potentially life-threatening miscarriage in which I began bleeding excessively. I am thankful for the medical care that helped me recover, and I am truly sorry that this terrible tragedy has happened to this woman and her husband. However, I remain unconvinced that Dr. Halappanavar’s death from septicemia resulted from her inability to receive an abortion. Although media stories have declared the family’s view, I have heard no panel of medical experts allege such a view. See the following: http://youtu.be/cVGvUF217us

By: Robert MacMillan

Robert MacMillan — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:57:53 +0000

I’ve been wondering the same thing about awareness of the law when you go to certain places. Having said that, I don’t think that any woman ever thinks before becoming pregnant, “Here’s what I’ll do if I go toxic and my child dies in utero, and by the way, what are the local, state or national laws that I’ll have to read before that happens?” Also, in this case, I think that the laws may say all sorts of things, but in my experience covering politics as a journalist, I have discovered that obeying the law often means interpreting it – just like a Supreme Court judge would, only without the background in jurisprudence. What we don’t know yet is whether the doctors could have made a case for aborting, and then decided not to, or whether it was very clear that you DO NOT do this under any circumstance.
Thanks for reading – I would say that it’s good to chat with you as always, but we’ve only chatted twice that I recall.
Robert

By: Ugottabesick

Ugottabesick — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 08:24:28 +0000

As Indians, we are always in a hurry to sit in judgement, where Indians are involved. Going by press reports,it appears that the attending physicians have abided by Irish laws. Moreover, the Government Inquiry will reveal whether there has been any overt negligence in providing treatment to the deceased.
Let us wait a few days for this to happen!
On a different note, the lady must have been aware of the implications of living and working in a country with strict abortion laws and had exercised a conscious decision to live and work in Ireland.
While her passing away was tragic, all we can offer at the moment is our condolences and pray for her, “May her soul rest in peace!”

By: cpor

cpor — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 20:12:51 +0000

The irish Government has demanded a full inquiry into the death of the poor woman and her child. There will be three separate inquires. There will be results early next week. I do not know of any group that would suggest that we cannot depend on the impartiality of there findings. the fact is that successif Governments have tried without success to force abortion on our free independent nation and have failed. Why not wait to see what they find out about the case and then make a gugement about ireland.