Savita's parents demand amendment of Irish abortion laws

Grief stricken parents of Savita Halappanavar, the Indian dentist who died in Ireland after doctors allegedly refused to terminate her pregnancy, today demanded amendment of Irish abortion laws to prevent such incidents.

Andaneppa Yalagi and Mahadevi Yalagi, parents of 31-year old Savita, who have been passing through the trauma of the sudden loss of their daughter, also appealed to the Indian Government to prevail upon Ireland to amend the Irish law banning abortions.

"The Irish law on abortion should be amended to prevent incidents such as my daughter's death from occurring in future," they told reporters here.

Andaneppa, who hails from Belgaum, said if hospital authorities had heeded to his daughter's request to terminate the pregnancy she would have survived.

He claimed Savita's kidney and liver was damaged due to inadequate care taken by hospital authorities.

Mahadevi said her daughter had asked several times over a three-day period that the pregnancy be terminated.

Andaneppa said having been told she was miscarrying, and after one day in severe pain, Savita asked for a medical termination.

This was refused, he said, because the foetal heartbeat was still present and my relatives were told (by doctors) "this is a Catholic country". Abortion is illegal in the Republic of Ireland.

The dead foetus was later removed and Savita was taken to the high dependency unit and then the intensive care unit, where she died of septicaemia on October 28.

An autopsy carried out two days later found she died of septicaemia "documented ante-mortem" and E.coli ESBL.

Irish authorities have launched a probe into the death of Savita.