Ireland’s Catholic bishops have said pregnant
women must receive all treatment to save their lives, even if it results
in the unintended death of an unborn child, the Catholic Herald reports. Their statement comes as the government opens a new investigation into the death of the Indian woman denied an abortion of her dying foetus, reports Reuters on Yahoo7.
The Catholic Herald says the bishops were responding to an outpouring of public anger over the death of a pregnant woman following a miscarriage in an Irish hospital.
In their statement they expressed anguish and shock at the deaths of Savita Halappanavar, 31, and her unborn child.
Mrs Halappanavar died after hospital medical staff determined they could not end the child’s life because they could detect a foetal heart beat, even as the woman’s husband, Praveen, urged them to save his wife’s life.
Mrs Halappanaver’s death at University Hospital Galway has prompted thousands of people to take to the streets calling for the country’s constitutional ban on abortion to be overturned.
In its statement, the Standing Committee of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference described the case as “a devastating personal tragedy” for the Halappanavar family and acknowledged that the circumstances of her death had “stunned our country”.
The bishops sought to clarify Church teaching on the need for medical intervention to save the life of a mother.
The bishops said they believed Ireland’s medical guidelines contained adequate ethical provisions to allow medical staff to intervene as long as necessary steps had been taken to save both mother and unborn child.