This essay has to do with the very recent death of an Indian woman who had moved to Galway, Ireland. Her death has bothered me greatly. The fact of the matter is that she did not have to die. As it turns out Savita is dead and the authorities are doing nothing about it. During her illness, which resulted in her death, both the Catholic Church and the Republic of Ireland are complicit in what many of us regard as her murder or needless death.
Let us start at the beginning. Her name was Savita and her last name was Halappanavar. Savita was a beautiful Indian woman who was 31 years of age at her death. She was married to an engineer from India. Savita was a dentist. Sometime in the past, she and her husband concluded that they should reside in Galway, Ireland. All indications are that she was enjoying her life among the Irish. She had established her dentistry practice and was pursuing that occupation at the time of her death.
A few years back Ireland passed a constitutional amendment which is very much like those proposed here in the United States involving the so-called personhood amendment. In Ireland, the fetus – not a human being – under the personhood amendment has all of the rights accorded to citizens of that great republic. The physicians who attended to Savita told her that as long as the fetus had a faint heartbeat, nothing could be done for her. Savita told the Irish authorities that she was neither Irish nor Catholic. This made no difference at all. The fact is that she was in a Catholic institution in a Catholic country and there would be no abortion.
After a time the heartbeat of the fetus stopped and it was finally delivered. With all of this delay in starting the abortion process, septicemia had set in. The terminal delay that accompanied this case has resulted in Savita’s death. Septicemia is a deadly disease. Obviously, septicemia was a function of the dithering that took place because of the Irish Catholic prohibition of abortion.
When Savita presented herself to the hospital authorities with the bleeding from her fetus, every civilized county would have prescribed immediate abortion. The fetus had no chance at life because it was bleeding to death at the 17th week of pregnancy. But the Irish are slaves to the requirements of the Catholic faith. Similarly the legal authorities in Ireland are also enslaved to adherence to the Catholic faith. So that is why I contend that the Catholic Church and the Republic of Ireland are complicit in causing the death of Savita. I am outraged! In any civilized country, Savita’s life would have been saved had she had an abortion when she reported to the hospital about her back pains. But as the authorities at the hospital told Savita, she was in a Catholic institution in a Catholic country. Thus Savita must die at the tender age of 31 years simply to satisfy the requirements of the Vatican.
I am assuming that the readers of Ezra’s Essays know of the fact that I am the descendant of Irish people. Over the years, I have been quite proud of the fact of my Irishness. Not only that, but my wife traces her heritage through her mother to County Armagh, an adjoining county to Donegal, where my people came from. But in this case, every Irish person must be ashamed of what has been done to Savita. We don’t treat people like that in Ireland, in what I have always assumed was a civilized country.
If Savita were a resident of other Catholic countries such as Italy, Spain, or Portugal, she would have been granted her desire to have an abortion to save her life. There is no question about that. If she had been a resident of Mexico, also a Catholic country, there would have been no problem about the abortion. Ah, but this is Ireland, and rules are rules. In this case, the rules resulted in the death of Savita.
Until recently, a Bishop in the Catholic Church was about as high as a man could go in the Irish Republic. Over the past year or thereabouts, there have stories of pedophile priests violating their young altar boys. So much of this was true that it resulted in the resignation of one of the leading Bishops in Ireland. But the civil authorities in Ireland have not gotten the message. When a Bishop of the Catholic Church wishes to have something done, the presumption is that it will be done because we are dealing with a Bishop who controls our eventual destiny. How ridiculous can you get?
I told you at the outset of this essay that I was angered. I am still angered at the thought of Savita losing her life because she went to a Catholic hospital in a Catholic country like Ireland. This was a needless death as protesters will be quick to remind you. But appealing to the civil authorities has no hope of help. The government of Ireland is helpless when it comes to abortion just as they are helpless when it comes to occupation of their country. It need not be this way, but that is the way it is.
As of 1922, when the Republic of Ireland came into existence, the British laid out a claim to six counties in Northern Ireland. For the 90 years since that treaty was concluded, there have been troubles. Basically the troubles had to do with a foreign entity, England, occupying a significant portion of Ireland, including its second city of Belfast. Had we heard any whimper of throwing the Brits out? The answer is a resounding no.
And have we heard any whimper of any descent against the Catholic prohibition of abortion. The answer to this also is a resounding no.
As I said, this essay was constructed because of my outrage because of Savita’s death. I do not know whether Joseph Ratzinger, the current Pope, is aware of Savita’s demise. In any event, Ratzinger will conclude that the directive not to provide abortion services comes from God. And the Republic of Ireland will not need to interfere in the workings of the Catholic Church, which meant that Savita’s life would not have been saved. This is a sad situation. But I regret to inform you that that is the state of the record if you need an abortion in a Catholic hospital in Galway in the great state of the Irish Republic. How sad!
E. E. CARR
November 20, 2012
Essay 718
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Kevin’s commentary: This one is sorta hard to comment on other than to say that it’s clearly unacceptable. Religion is often at its ugliest when it imposes itself on those who do not subscribe to its bizarre stipulations.