Sir, – Dr John Murphy, retired consultant obstetrician wrote a most helpful letter (January 17th) to support the call for the enactment of laws that reflect medical reality in the early 21st century, after listening to and reading the evidence given by obstetricians to the Oireachtas Health Committee.
He referred to a paper he wrote with Dr Kevin O’Driscoll 30 years ago in which they, with a panel of experienced obstetricians and physicians, examined the cases of maternal deaths at the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street during the 1970s. During the decade 28 maternal deaths occurred and the panel decided that possibly the life of only one woman, a cardiac case, could have been saved by a therapeutic abortion, but she was so unwell it was felt that might precipitate her death. “The one mother in question,” he wrote, “had a heart condition, now almost unknown in the developed world,” and one must consider that rheumatic heart disease could have been the problem in this case.
While rheumatic heart disease is, thankfully, no more in Ireland, deaths from cardiovascular disease are still reported as a cause of maternal mortality. In his statement to the Oireachtas Health Committee, Prof Richard Greene of Cork University Hospital and a member of the Maternal Death Inquiry Ireland for 2009 to 2011 reported that five indirect maternal deaths due to cardiovascular disease had taken place during that period. The type of cardiovascular event is not given.
There has been a change in the profile of pregnant women in Ireland since the 1970s. They are older and some may have complex cardiac problems such as congenital heart defects repaired by our excellent paediatric cardiac surgeons and cared for by paediatric cardiologists here. As young women they may, naturally, long to have children but could fall into the category of high-risk births.
In this debate on abortion it seems to be forgotten that the woman in a life-threatening situation probably longs for the child she is carrying.
Viability of the foetus is now much earlier and I am confident that the proposed legislation with regulations will encompass this issue.
Patients’ problems change and medical practice changes and improves. Years ago ectopic pregnancies had to be treated by the removal of the Fallopian tube with the foetus developing in it. Now, except where there is an emergency with bleeding, the condition is treated medically and the woman’s Fallopian tube preserved and the possibility of a future pregnancy improved. No one suggests we should resort to surgery to preserve the “double effect” argument. I support Dr Murphy’s call for the enactment of legislation. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – It is heartening to know that 25,000 Irish people and their many supporters are awake and against legislating for abortion in Ireland. (Home News, January 19th). However, the majority of the people we elected to govern us appear to be asleep. Wake up Enda Kenny! The alarm bells are ringing: lives are at stake here, as is the political future of Fine Gael. – Yours, etc,