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All You Should Know About: Savita Halappanavar

by Tejas Morey|Posted on Nov 22nd 2012| Rating

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Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old citizen of the Republic of India, originally from Belgaum in Karnataka and who was working in Ireland as a dentist, died at University Hospital Galway (Ospidéil na hollscoile Gaillimh) on the 28 October 2012.

She was suffering from a miscarriage when she was about 17 weeks pregnant. She sought medical attention and treatment at University Hospital Galway, where her husband reported that she was refused an abortion, or a termination of her pregnancy, by the hospital upon the grounds that the miscarrying foetus still apparently had a heartbeat of its own. During the next several days, Halappanavar developed septicemia and multiple organ failure, which led to her death.

Under Irish law, an unlawful act of abortion is a criminal offence in the Republic of Ireland and is punishable by imprisonment. Albeit this was a controversial case, especially as she was being diagnozed with other fatal diseases, and an abortion would've saved her life. Unfortunately, due to the lack of flexibility, or rather a law specifying an abortion in such a case was lacking, the doctors had no choice but to let Savita slip into septicemia and suffer from multiple organ failure.

This incident saw a massive response from the global media who shed light upon the morals and ethics revolving around the sensitive case of abortion. Rallies and protests were held, calling for a change in the abortion laws in Ireland, of which the protesters claimed led to Halappanavar's death. There are currently on-going investigations into the incident and her death.

The Minister for Health, Dr James Reilly said that the public must not pre-judge the situation and further said that he was awaiting for the results of the investigations.

In India, the Indian Minister for External Affairs Salman Khurshid also summoned the Irish ambassador Debashish Chakravarti to India for deliberations over the issue.