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THE HISTORY OF the Eighth amendment is more akin to an alphabet. Six anonymous women – A, B, C, D, X, and Y – have been the subject of cases resulting from the complicated legal mess emanating from the Eighth Amendment.
Every case has been followed by controversy, and calls for change. However, 20 years after the X case, it seemed that those calls had mostly fallen on deaf ears.
On 28 October 2012, a woman began to miscarry. She sought treatment at University Hospital Galway.
Upon admission, she repeatedly requested an abortion. It was denied by medical staff who believed that she was not entitled to a lawful termination. She was instead given antibiotics. Two days later, the woman collapsed, suffering from septic shock. Treatments were unsuccessful, and she died on the 28 October 2012.
Savita
Her name was Savita Halappanavar. She was a 31-year-old married dentist from Belgaum, India. Two things strike me as different about Savita. The first is that she was ‘normal’. Not in a poor state of mental health, nor suffering from preexisting medical conditions. The second is that she was not anonymous – Savita kept her name.
It is easy to dehumanise those facing abortion. To think that they are exceptional. That they are young women who made a foolish decision. That they are irresponsible. That they are sluts. That they are murderers. It is easy to hide them behind a letter, and to refuse to change the law that caused their suffering.
Savita’s death challenged these perceptions. The HSE report lead by Professor Arulkumaran named legal uncertainty – caused by the Eighth Amendment – as a causal factor in her untimely passing. A termination would have saved her life. She was entitled to this treatment under the judgment in the X case.
Until 2013, however, Ireland refused to back this judgment with legislation.
Overly-restrictive
The Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act was hailed as a solution to the series of cases. Simply put – it wasn’t. The overly-restrictive process replaced uncertainty with bureaucracy, and did little to liberalise the law on abortion overall. The cases continued.
In April 2014, Miss Y arrived in Ireland. She had been raped in her home country. She subsequently discovered that she was pregnant, and sought an abortion. Despite the two psychiatrists on the required panel attesting that she was suicidal, she was denied an abortion. She had previously attempted to travel to the UK for an abortion, but was arrested on arrival for illegally entering the country.
The foetus was delivered by caesarian three months later, when viable.
In December 2014, a pregnant woman – known only as PP – was declared brain dead as a result of a head injury. She was subsequently placed on life support in order to preserve the pregnancy.
Doctors in both hospitals wherein PP was treated believed that the presence of a foetal heartbeat required them to maintain the woman’s rapidly decaying body. Three weeks later the High Court clarified that she could be disconnected.
Courts
Whilst this may appear to be a sensible judgment, it is arguable that it would allow for a dead body to be used as an incubator where the foetus may eventually become viable. Once again, the Eighth Amendment has put reason out of reach in order to dogmatically protect the unborn.
To quote Dr Mairead Enright of UCC:
Doctors in court repeatedly asserted that they and their colleagues felt bound by law to pursue a course of action which subjected a woman to treatment which they recognised as not only extraordinary but grotesque.
Until we repeal the Eighth, there will be more cases. More women will suffer. More bizarre situations will emerge, that could be easily remedied in any other European legal system. In the eyes of the law women will also be considered as vessels for their fetus, preventing them coming first when they need medical treatment. Our shameful alphabet will continue to grow.
If you believe that we need to change the law in any form – be it allowing abortion for rape victims, in cases of FFA, or on demand – then you need to ask for a referendum on the Eighth. If you believe that mothers should come first when being treated medically, then the Eighth needs to be repealed.
If you want us to treat women with dignity, the path is clear.
Sam Elliot is a recent graduate of DCU’s BCL programme (1.1). I’ve previously been a committee member of the DCU Sociolegal Studies Review, and represented the university as an intern in the Supreme Court.
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Putin ordered them back to barracks after seeing how annoyed Gilmore was on the 6 1 news yesterday !!!
Anyone remember the protests in Greece a couple of years ago..:.. Those protestors wanted their Gov ousted too but I remember Merkel telling them that they were democratically elected and the people would have to wait for an election… When it suits I suppose
Hopefully Putin has noticed that the international community has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukrainian Crimea and blinked. The rouble fell to a record low yesterday, the Moscow Stock Market fell by 11 per cent, 60 billion dollars was wiped off the value of Russian companies, interest rates in ceased by one and a half per cent and capital is flying out of Russia to the West. This has all happened before any sanctions are imposed by the EU, the US or others.The oligarchs who surround and finance Putin will have noticed this and so will ordinary Russians struggling to make a living in a poor economy.
As gas prices went up and the lads were back to barracks to count the extra cash. :)
Good point David, but I don’t think the poor ordinary guy really matters. Russia communist or otherwise has never been good to its ordinary man. Ukraine looked west towards the EU and is now getting slapped for it. Please God it won’t escalate any further!
@ Pokey 2013: Contrary to what you will read in the media, In the past ten years wages for the ordinary worker in Russia have increased by over 100%. Ordinary people are buying homes, cars ,TV’s, going on holidays to southern Europe etc. Pubs and restaurants are full, and doing very good business. I must always smile when I read German tabloids telling their readers how bad everything is in Russia, and how happy they should be. Yet it is one of Germany’s largest and most important markets. If there are any problems you will have mass unemployment in Germany. It is also is rapidly diversifying its economy and so becoming less dependent on Gas and oil exports. I have lived for the past seven years in Russia, and after having lived in Holland ,Germany, Vietnam and Turkey, this is probably the most interesting country I have lived in , witnessing so much rapid change. Also great people. In some sense ,like the Irish.
Padraic, the undeniable increase in Russian living standards over the past decade is a direct result of a more open policy of increased international trade with Europe and others, something which Putin is now putting in jeopardy.
@ Padriac O’Dwyer : Exactly. I’ve been to Russia a number of times and it’s nothing like it’s made out to be.
@ Avina why is Putin ‘putting it in jeopardy’ its the fecking USA and the EU that are sticking their noses yet again where they shouldn’t. How would the USA feel is Mexico starting having some civil war and Americans are in Mexico and Russia decided to send troops over and threating to put sanctions on USA if they set foot in Mexico. Get away with it will ya.
John Kerry is Russian to get there!
Terroirise people is all Poo10 is fit for. His contribution to g9 is zero. Pretends to be an important little man. Where is Obama though. We could with Hilary right now
The US and the West is openly supporting neo nazis who are in prominent positions in the new government that has emerged in Ukraine. The democratically elected President of the Ukraine has asked Russia to intervene militarily and restore order. If talks fail, Russia might well indeed do this or they might just wait for the East of Ukraine to go autonomous.
And what do you call the gang in Moscow.
Yes, democratically elected but also democratically impeached in accordance with the Ukrainan constitution by a majority of 318 to 0 of Ukraine’s democratically elected parliamentarians.
The President of Ireland is also democratically elected but can be removed from office under article 12.10 of our constitution, akin to what has happened in Ukraine.
Avina
Parliament didn’t try to remove him until they were under theat from armed mobs after weeks of violence. They had no choice. If we don’t like our elected government do we follow proper procedures or just burn the streets and attack the police?
The parliamentarians all jumped ship to save their own neck from the mob. Strange how he didn’t have 318 against him until the mob overran the parliament.
Fair point Ancient, but the somewhat drastic action of removing the president was unlikely to happen until the ongoing crisis came to a head with the massacre of mostly unarmed protesters.
Did you hear the Ukrainian ambassador to the UK say that the removal of Yanukovych represented the will of the Ukrainian people and was carried out lawfully by their democratically elected parliament?
This man is the pre-existing Ukrainian government’s own representative, not some stooge of the west, and if events had happened as portrayed by some on here do you not think he would have been screaming blue murder about the illegal takeover of his country instead of defending what happened?
That’s the end to any solution to the civil war in Syria because of the fallout between the EU, America and Russia. The Ukraine has definitely found itself caught between a rock and a hard place. Putin can flex his muscles as much as he wants with impunity because the West can really do nothing substantial, only enforced economic sanctions and cut of diplomatic ties.
What about it. Syria is a training ground for Russian terrorists & Poo10 is too thick to realise it.
His name is Putin. Sick of your rubbish posts. Are you trying to be funny?
This is a democratic forum, not for Russian simpitsors.
simpitsors? You mean sympathisers yea? I sympathise with Russia on this one. They’ve got a neighbouring country that the EU and the USA seem so hell bent on gaining control of. If I was Putin I’d be getting the army out and telling the lot of them the fup off back to their own territories too. Tired of USA sticking it’s nose into every bloody bodies business and stirring up unrest so they can roll in and money grab all the oil while they’re at it.
John Kerry says the Rouble will tumble, unfortunately so is the Euro and the Dollar and the Pound. Germany and most Eastern European countires depend on Russian energy. Energy prices rose everywhere yesterday by up to 30% some bloody nose we are giving Putin. The British Govenerment Dossier on the BBC/Skynews this morning suggesting they NOT to do anything sanctions wise that upsets the London Stock Exchange really says it all. Then we have the new guy in Kiev last night announcing he is “delaying” the implimentation of the law downgrading the Russian language, which started the whole thing off. Russians should sit there until elections are held protecting these minoroities from the right-wing street gangs in Kiev. Then when Crimea says we want to secede just like Kosova from Serbia, there will be no moral dilema for the west at all, happy days.
The rouble has tumbled not because John Kerry says so but because it has. The Moscow Stock Exchange tumbled.Russian interest rates went up because capital is flying out of Russia. Europe is no longer as dependent on Russian gas than it was in the past because there are new sources of supply, large quantities of gas are held in storage, and demand is low because of the mild winter. But Russia depends on gas and oil sales for the vast majority of its export earnings. Russia cannot afford to cut off gas supplies to Western Europe.
Reading you comments is like watching Sky news. Keep spinning the same shite all day long.
He’s a big fan of Maggie Thatcher is David Giles, didn’t you know?
If they can’t sell the gas west they will turn east. China would take it off their hands at a good price. Russia is not alone.
For once, just once Golden, could you come up with a constructive point instead of an ad hominem attack?
@ Golden : If so , then also of Pol Pot. Maggie tried d her best to get them legitimized by the UN , until the Swedish government led a massive protest movement against her initiative . She was defeated needless to say.
Bes friend of Pinochet. Mass murderer and torturer. Great company to be in I must say.
@ fool Hunter : Russia cannot fulfill its obligations to energy hungry China at the moment because of lacking pipelines. A matter of time.
I know but had to be said. The amount of people on here advocating war or saying Russia would be annihilated. It amazes me how little they know about how the political elite work. I just wanted to remind them of China. Russia and China might not be up to America’s army standard but they are pretty much debt free. That counts for a lot in a world now run by money and gold, not jets and missiles.
In deception. You always hide a big move behind a small move. Ukraine is the small move.
The unelected Caroline Ashton from the f***ing EU talking about democracy?
Oh the irony.
Sketch lads give up playing soldiers here’s Kerry
A freak of a man is Kerry, Skull and Bones ambassador, Son of Frankenstein, a psychopathic pr!ck, evil to the core, have to be to get into Skull and Bones when the initiation into the society is your mock sacrifice to god knows what.
Golden, pity you can’t come up with some words like that for Assad or Putin. But you never will.
This is 1920′s ireland all over again. An emerging nation has a province with an ethnic majority which wants to be part of a neighbouring superpower. The then ethnic British got their way resulting in a civil war and bloody campaigns that continue to this day. Is Ukraine, Armenia,Russia and the ethnic Russians, history repeating itself?
@Alex Carroll, there are parallels between the Ukrainian situation now and the Irish situation. The Irish Government has supported the territorial integrity, unity and independence of the Ukraine. Is this position shared by all Irish political parties including Sinn Fein ?
Putin has ordered his troops back to barracks. Hopefully he has got the message. You don’t f**k with the might of the American military!
Back to barracks in Russia after war games. They’re still strolling around Crimea dodging the mighty invisible American bullets and missiles. The damage these are doing is huge…
Yes the invisible bombs and missiles scared them. Strange though that they were only told to go back to barracks after war games in Russia. They’re still strolling around Crimea.
There remains the risk of an escalation with Crimea being used as a bridge-head to invade mainland Ukraine. There are 10 UKrainian bases surrounded in Crimea.
Brian your just sparking a silly comment fuse there. Say that to the Vietnamese.
Will the EU give monetary assistance to the Ukraine like Russia, who was giving 16billion to help with their faltering economy? If the EU are serious about helping the Ukraine they should put their money where their mouth is. Words cost nothing!
The EU will probably match the US with a rescue package. The US promised 1 billion, if they arr lucky the EU will give 5 billion. The rest will be given by the IMF and the Ukraine will turn into a basket case.
Buying a country that sits on top of Russia’s oil lines. How convenient right?
Like I’m ‘sure’ it’s got everything to do with the compassion of the people of Ukraine and nothing to do with setting up military bases next to Russia and sitting on top of their oil lines.
They will be back in at lunchtime with a proper invasion force.
What they have been doing over the last couple of days is testing the water, and have seen that Ukraine hasn’t the strength to defend itself and that it will get no support, other than verbal, from the US, the UK or NATO.
The Chinese will take a different tack, calling in unpayable debt to force a reaction from the US, and then the party will start.
To give credit to John Kerry, his will be the first feet on the ground giving support to Ukraine, but many more will be needed to resist the Russian advance.
@Garry Coll, in fairness to William Hague, the British Foreign Secretary, he was in Kiev on Sunday and Monday giving support to the Ukrainian Government. Other European ministers and EU officials have also been to Kiev in recent days.
Sorry David, missed that, too busy watching Donegal thump Monaghan.
But the point I made that real military support with battalions on the ground will be needed to turn Putin back is, I think, still valid.
William Hague also freely admitted that Russia has a legal right to have troops in Crimea.
Having servicemen present in their leased black sea naval bases is not the same as having armed units forcibly taking over Ukrainian airfields and other military facilities!
Force? Was there fighting? How many dead and injured?
The purpose of these military exercises was to intimidate the Ukraine and its neighbours and to impress the Russian people with the power of the Russian armed forces.But the Ukrainian armed forces in the Ukraine have not surrendered and both sides are reluctant to fire at each other. Thank goodness !
It won’t be long till Putin has troops in Donesk and Odessa, while the EU keep talking about banning imports of margarine.
Ex colonial powers like Russia do not have a moral or legal right to intervene miliarily to punish them for pursuing closer ties with the EU. Russian society is increasingly chauvinistic and nationalistic. Theee is absolutely no evidence Russians are being physically harmed by the new Ukrainian government.
Germany and the UK need to cop on to themselves after stories yesterday that they don’t want economic sanctions. Putin sees this as weakness and it only encourages him to demand more like HItler did after he was let take Austria and Czechoslovakia. I suggest they google “Appeasement”.
There are 200,000 UK citizens here. Imagine the UK invading to ‘protect’ them?
Eamon your post makes sense but for two glaring contradictions.. Western, including British and French, colonial powers have intervened as recently as last month in former colonies/possessions/zones of interest, so looking them to police another country for doing the same is contradictory and potentially hypocritical.
Also the allusion to Hitler, appeasement and Czechoslovakia is a little misapplied. The previous Ukrainian government was not some angelic and innocent regime, but the current government is fascist in nature and, as coming months will prove, also fascist in practice.
Trade unionists, socialists, liberal democrats, LGBTQ people as migrants have been under attack in the Western Ukraine throughout this whole carnival, as last week the senior Rabbi in Kiev advised Jewish residents of that city to leave asap. The support from the EU and the United States smacks of the ‘peace in our time’ appeasement of the ‘thirties.
Russian intervention may prove to be a total catastrophe or it may stymie a rising tide of very real fascism in Eastern Europe.
Neither I, nor others with a critical view of the whole affair are naive about Russia’s intentions or motives, but they appear to be a lot more straight-forward and honest than those of the EU, US and IMF.
have your say