17-week pregnant woman dies in Irish hospital after doctors refuse termination

I was upset by the story,but what caused outrage was some of the comments here.A woman has lost her liufe and we are commenting about the country where she came from and her religion. For those who are ignorant, HIndus do believe inn re-incarnation,but they don't force their beliefs on others. This lady is more qualified than your average Irish and you accuse her of gender selection becuase she is an Indian! Be ashamed of yourselves. I am happy that I migrated to Australia and not to Ireland. I pity the man who lost his wife and child because he believd in rumours that Ireland has good health care system. Visit or read about India before commenting, you ignorant folks!

How does the medical profession in Ireland distinguish between (1)premature birth, whether the fetus is viable or not, and (2) miscarriage? It would seem miscarriage, at least in the U.S., means the fetus, younger than six months' gestation, was non-viable and already has died. In the case of advanced pregnancy, delivery of a dead fetus at a viable gestational age would be a stillbirth. If the fetus still is alive, the labor and delivery are called premature birth. It seems the doctors should have tried to stop labor or should have delivered the live fetus to keep the mother from suffering so and to prevent death from septicemia. There also should have been intervention to save the premature infant as well. So much for the "pro-life" stance of the incompetent people involved in this tragic case.

I hope that the Pro-lifers and Catholics are happy about this. They just murded a women and Should be ashamed of themselves.

Where did you establish that the couple used the public system?

A truly tragic case, reflecting badly on Ireland as a whole. I wonder if this presumably reasonably wealthy professional couple might have been better going 'private' rather than the notoriously unreliable Irish State Health Executive!

Jimgordo -- There is no limit to the ignorance of that comment. Are you not aware that the term consultant refers to the doctor in charge of the case, the person who makes all the medical decisions? For that ignorance alone, I think the rest of what you said can be safely ignored.

By the way, don't forget to support The Gathering. (Warning: not suitable for pregnant women).

OK folks, lets all take a deep breath and step back one pace. There is not one person here who was ACTUALLY there and can state what ACTUALLY happened, Everyone is operating on third-hand information. The FACTS in the case are: 1) A pregnant Hindi woman died in a Catholic hospital of septicemia. 2) The husband claims he was told the pregnancy could not be terminated because there was "fetal haeartbeat." Does anyone have substantiation of this statement from anyone on the hospital staff 3) Who is this "consultant" who "came around on rounds?" Since when do "consultants" "Make rounds?" From my experience with hospitals, doctors make rounds, not "consultants." Since when does a "consultant" make medical decisions? 4) Since "the cervix was fully dilated and amniotic fluid leaking," it sounds as tho birth was underway. If so, why didn't the hospital induce labor or at least deliver the baby be Cesarean? From my point of view, it sounds like a CYA situation. Plain and simple, somebody at the hospital screwed up royally. From what I understand, the "save the mother or the baby" syndrome is something out of the 50s. There is no reason with modern medicine that both mother and baby can't survive. That it was a Catholic hospital in a Catholic country and that she was Hindu are all totally irrelevant! Some body was in a CYA mood, plain and simple.

We have our own Taliban in Ireland, women beware of Irish Catholic Hospitals.

Tell me this Jesus!, are you happy at the death of this woman?,

Nothing unusual there. Bigots do that sort of thing all the time. It's the loudmouth, schoolyard bully response.

woundedknee accuses Bocktherobber of racism. It would be unny if it were not tragic.

WoulndedKnee -- You've just exposed yourself for the hate-filled xenophobe I thought you were. Unlike the national front, and unlike you, I welcome diversity in our country. If anyone has something in common with those ignorant Nazi thugs, it's you. A lovely young woman has died thanks to the sort of ignorance you and your kind promote. Be ashamed.

Enough of your stupid racism, bocktherobber. Go back to the British national front sites you like to hang around. Of course you're too stupid to understand the point I was making. As regards Irish immigrants, you're too stupid to know that most Irish-Americans oppose illegal aliens from Ireland in our country. Of course you don't do facts, do you, you just do bigotry and garbage.

Not long ago, a woman in AZ was admitted to a Catholic hospital who was going to die if the pregnancy wasn't terminated - which would mean that the fetus would also die. The nun in charge sensibly ordered that the pregnancy be terminated, and it was. For this, her bishop excommunicated the nun and ruled the hospital no longer Catholic. It seems that the church is becoming MORE fanatic about this, not less.