Two investigations are under way into the death of a woman who was 17 weeks pregnant, at University Hospital Galway last month.
Savita Halappanavar (31), a dentist, presented with back pain at the hospital on October 21st, was found to be miscarrying, and died of septicaemia a week later.
Her husband, Praveen Halappanavar (34), an engineer at Boston Scientific in Galway, says she asked several times over a three-day period that the pregnancy be terminated. He says that, having been told she was miscarrying, and after one day in severe pain, Ms Halappanavar asked for a medical termination.
This was refused, he says, because the fetal heartbeat was still present and they were told, “this is a Catholic country”.
She spent a further 2½ days “in agony” until the fetal heartbeat stopped.
The dead fetus was removed and Savita was taken to the high dependency unit and then the intensive care unit, where she died of septicaemia on the 28th.
An autopsy carried out by Dr Grace Callagy two days later found she died of septicaemia “documented ante-mortem” and E.coli ESBL.
Before you simply dismiss this as another post "where Gryphen goes off on religion again" let me remind you that since the Teabaggers took center stage in 2010, they have introduced almost 1,000 new bills aimed at restricting a woman's ability to control her own body.
And their argument is based on the ridiculous belief that "life begins at conception" which is itself based on the completely unscientific view that life is a gift from God and that man has no right to interfere with God's will. (That is of course until the fetus is born, at which time it is on its own until it is old enough to enlist in the military and can then be sent to die in a war basically determined by religious conflicts in the Middle East.)
So long as people are unwilling to realize that "life" should be defined by "viability" rather than "possibility" these people will continue to willingly sacrifice the life of the mother at the altar of the unborn fetus.
And if that is not troubling enough, and I cannot imagine why it would NOT be, also let me remind you that this ENTIRE argument is based on the Catholic church's refusal to admit that the Pope is not infallible.
Am I the ONLY one who looks outside and recognizes that we are living in the 21st century? How can a country like Ireland allow this poor woman to die in deference to a primitive religion that was given birth at a time when Hebrews believed the earth was flat, sickness was the result of sin, and that the stars were stuck in a dome of water that encompassed the earth?
And even more troubling, how can America be on the fast track to joining them in their ignorance?
Let's be honest with ourselves, if not for this archaic view of the beginning of life, based SOLELY on ancient religious beliefs, there would be no debate.
Without religious objections, of course we would teach sex education and birth control in our public and private schools.
Without religious objections, of course contraceptive products would be readily available to those that wanted them.
And without religious objections, of COURSE the mother's life would take precedence over the potential for life growing inside of her.
My only question is how much longer will American women allow themselves to be bullied into being relegated to nothing more than breeding stock, by a patriarchal religious viewpoint that was developed at a time when infant mortality was between 20-30 percent and the median lifespan for a woman was not even 30 years old?
