One of two nuns on the board of the Mater hospital in
Dublin has stressed it “won’t be performing abortions” following the
introduction of the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Act.
Sr
Eugene Nolan, nurse tutor at the hospital, described as “a tragedy” and
“huge loss” the resignation of another religious director of the
institution, Fr Kevin Doran, over the hospital’s plans to comply with the new legislation.
She said yesterday evening she was still considering her response to the decision by the hospital to comply with the Act.
However, she said: “The Mater won’t be performing abortions. This is a matter of how we deal with complicated situations.”
There
had been five babies delivered at the Mater in the last 12 months,
following the transfer of pregnant women with serious complications from
the Rotunda hospital, she said.
“The women had serious heart conditions. I guarantee you in England
those babies would not have been born, the pregnancies would have been
terminated. We deal with complicated situations, we do not set out to
lose babies. If we do lose babies it’s not because we set out to,” she
said. “A dose of reality is needed here.”
Fr Doran had previously said the Mater could “not comply” with the legislation as it ran counter to its Catholic ethos.
He told the Irish Catholic
newspaper yesterday he could not in conscience continue as a member of
the hospital board of directors or board of governors.
“I can confirm
that I have resigned because I can’t reconcile my own conscience
personally with the statement, largely because I feel a Catholic
hospital has to bear witness . . . to Gospel values alongside providing
excellent care.”
Tragedy
Sr Eugene, a former midwife who worked in England and Kenya before returning to the Mater in 1981, said of Fr Doran’s resignation: “It’s a tragedy that’s he’s gone. We will certainly miss him. He has been with the hospital for many years. He is a huge loss.”
She too expressed concerns about the Act at the time of Fr Doran’s statement in August, saying it was “against our ethos”.
Asked her position now, she said: “I don’t know where we go now. I’m going to see. I will see what is said.”
The
other members of the hospital’s board of directors are: John Morgan, Sr
Margherita Rock, Prof Conor O’Keane, Mary Day, Caroline Pigott, Dr Mary
Carmel Burke, Martin Cowley, Don Mahony, Prof Brendan Kinsley, Thomas
Lynch and Eddie Shaw.
The Mater last week issued a
statement saying it would comply with the Protection of Life during
Pregnancy Act, which sets out the circumstances where an abortion can be
performed to save a woman’s life.
The Act names
the Mater as one of 25 “appropriate institutions” for the carrying out
of abortions.
The Mater is one of two Catholic voluntary hospitals on
the list – the other being St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin,
which also said it would comply with the Act.
The
question of the hospital’s compliance with the Act had been discussed
at an “exhausting four-hour” meeting of the board of directors on
September 17th, Sr Eugene said.
Legal challenge
Among the options discussed was a legal challenge to the Act.
“But we don’t
have the money to take on the Government. We are caught and we are back
to ‘He who pays the piper calls the tune’. What could we do? Go down to
the orthopaedic ward and say: ‘There’ll be no more hip replacements
because we have to mount a legal challenge’?”
The
issue was also an “extremely difficult one” for the Sisters of Mercy,
founders of the hospital in 1861 and still majority members of its
parent company the Mater Misericordiae and the Children’s University
Hospitals (Temple St) Ltd.
“I don’t know what the sisters will do,” she said. A spokesman for the Sisters of Mercy said there was “no comment”.