Legal guidance for doctors

I have no intention of entering into the current abortion debate but one thing puzzles me about the recent case which has hit the headlines. 

As I understand it, the lady’s waters broke with complete loss of amniotic fluid when she was just 16 weeks pregnant. Even a medical student let alone a gynaecologist knows that, in such cases, there is a 100 per cent certainty that the foetus will die and that unless the non-viable pregnancy is terminated there is also a grave risk of the mother getting an infection (such infections can be particularly vicious) with the risk of death.

There is, therefore, an absolute threat to the mother’s health.  No “ifs”, no ‘buts”.

What puzzles me, however, is why her attending doctors, knowing these facts but worried about the legal implications did not contact the duty magistrate, present the facts and ask for legal advice in this quandary.

From what the eminent Giovanni Bonello has repeatedly confirmed in the media, the advice would have been clear, that is, to proceed with the termination despite the temporary presence of a heartbeat.

I speak from personal experience as a doctor (retired anaesthetist) in the UK. In one instance (nothing to do with abortion), the surgeon and I were in a quandary as to how we should proceed in a medico-legally charged emergency life-or-death case. 

We contacted the duty coroner who patiently but very clearly explained the law to us,  allowing us to proceed as we saw fit, in full understanding of the legal facts. 

I do not know whether such advice would be available under Maltese law but, given the current abortion scenario, it certainly should be as,  after all, doctors are not lawyers.

Charles Gauci – Sannat

Pregnant visitors

The case of Andrea Prudente, the American woman refused an abortion to terminate a non-viable pregnancy due to the presence of a foetal heartbeat, has chilled me to the bone. The similarities to the heartbreaking case of Savita Halappanavar, who died tragically and unnecessarily in my home country of Ireland almost 10 years ago, are too many to overlook.

Savita’s death, after she had been denied the termination which might have saved her life, convulsed Ireland and resulted in the repeal, six years later, of our constitutional ban on abortion. It is to our eternal shame that it took a woman’s death to make us act humanely. Will it take another woman’s death to persuade Malta to make its own compassionate changes and do the right thing?

I visited your lovely island in September, 2019 and plan to return this September. I had intended to bring my teenage daughter with me but I fear I can no longer do so, unless I am willing to insist that she produces a negative pregnancy test before we leave home.

Malta does not seem like a safe destination for anyone who could possibly be pregnant right now.

Bernie Linnane – Co. Leitrim, Ireland

Lace making in bygone days

I thought readers may be interested in the attached painting, depicting a scene very familiar many, many years ago.

It was done by a relative of mine who was staying with us in Għajnsielem, where, in those days, every house sported a lady making lace, mostly in the evening when the heat of the day was gone.

Terry Bate – Għajnsielem