The Associated Press (via The Washington Post) reports that the composition of the panel that is investigating Dr. Savita Halappanavar's death in Ireland has changed:
As I discussed in an earlier post, the mainstream press and the pro-life press are reporting things rather differently. The mainstream narrative assumes that Dr. Halappanavar's death is the result of bad laws-- a failure to implement clear legal guidelines to guide doctors. The pro-life narrative is that Dr. Halappanavar's death is the result of bad doctors. Their assertion is that medical guidelines published by the Medical Council clearly allow for an abortion in Dr. Halappanavar's case, so Ireland's pro-life laws do not need to be changed. Instead, incompetent doctors at University Hospital Galway are at fault. (What Catholic doctrine recommended in this situation is, it seems to me, opaque.)
From the standpoint of politics, the irony of kicking the Galway doctors off of the investigative panel is that if the doctors from University Hospital Galway were inclined to engage in a whitewash, they would likely have blamed bad laws. Saying that Dr. Halappanavar's death was caused by bad laws is a way of shifting accountability away from the Hospital and its doctors. Therefore, a panel composed of doctors looking to stick up for one another might have made the liberalization of Ireland's abortion laws more likely, actually.
It is possible that the investigative panel will look at Medical Council guidelines and conclude that Dr. Halappanavar's doctors were primarily at fault, guilty of incompetence and/or fatal diffidence in the face of Catholicism. Given the mainstream press narrative, a panel report that blames 'a few bad apples' and does not recommend wider legal change is going to come as a nasty shock and itself seem like a whitewash.
Links:
Associated Press article, published in The Washington Post (November 20, 2012): In U-turn, Ireland drops 3 doctors from probe into hospital death of woman denied abortion
Reuters article (November 23, 2012): Ireland opens new probe into death of woman denied abortion
A balanced analysis of the politics of the inquiry, in The Irish Times (November 24, 2012): Time for political focus on abortion not procrastination
Prime Minister Enda Kenny told lawmakers he hoped the move — barely 24 hours after Ireland unveiled the seven-member panel — would allow the woman’s widower to support the probe into why Savita Halappanavar, a 31-year-old Indian dentist, died Oct. 28 while hospitalized in Galway.
Kenny’s U-turn came hours after her husband, Praveen Halappanavar, said he would refuse to talk to the investigators and would not consent to their viewing his wife’s medical records because three of the Galway hospital’s senior doctors had been appointed as investigators.
Kenny said that the three doctors would be replaced by other officials “who have no connection at all with University Hospital Galway. In that sense the investigation will be completely and utterly independent.”This makes sense. Why conduct an inquiry at all if it can be accused, right from the start, of a conflict of interest?
As I discussed in an earlier post, the mainstream press and the pro-life press are reporting things rather differently. The mainstream narrative assumes that Dr. Halappanavar's death is the result of bad laws-- a failure to implement clear legal guidelines to guide doctors. The pro-life narrative is that Dr. Halappanavar's death is the result of bad doctors. Their assertion is that medical guidelines published by the Medical Council clearly allow for an abortion in Dr. Halappanavar's case, so Ireland's pro-life laws do not need to be changed. Instead, incompetent doctors at University Hospital Galway are at fault. (What Catholic doctrine recommended in this situation is, it seems to me, opaque.)
From the standpoint of politics, the irony of kicking the Galway doctors off of the investigative panel is that if the doctors from University Hospital Galway were inclined to engage in a whitewash, they would likely have blamed bad laws. Saying that Dr. Halappanavar's death was caused by bad laws is a way of shifting accountability away from the Hospital and its doctors. Therefore, a panel composed of doctors looking to stick up for one another might have made the liberalization of Ireland's abortion laws more likely, actually.
It is possible that the investigative panel will look at Medical Council guidelines and conclude that Dr. Halappanavar's doctors were primarily at fault, guilty of incompetence and/or fatal diffidence in the face of Catholicism. Given the mainstream press narrative, a panel report that blames 'a few bad apples' and does not recommend wider legal change is going to come as a nasty shock and itself seem like a whitewash.
Links:
Associated Press article, published in The Washington Post (November 20, 2012): In U-turn, Ireland drops 3 doctors from probe into hospital death of woman denied abortion
Reuters article (November 23, 2012): Ireland opens new probe into death of woman denied abortion
A balanced analysis of the politics of the inquiry, in The Irish Times (November 24, 2012): Time for political focus on abortion not procrastination
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