Last October an Indian woman died at the Galway City University College Hospital, Ireland, from E.coli ESBL septicaemia, after being 17 weeks pregnant with a girl.

An inquest into the death of Savita was held and the jury gave its verdict some days ago. In the inquest it emerged that catastrophic medical omissions led to Savita’s death. The inquest heard that a vital blood test that would have revealed a sepsis infection was not processed on the morning that Savita miscarried.

Returning a verdict of medical misadventure in the case, the jury issued nine recommendations including that the Medical Council “should lay out exactly when a doctor can intervene to save the life of the mother in similar circumstances”.

In a statement issued before the verdict of the jury, the Irish bishops insisted that “the Catholic Church has never taught that the life of a child in the womb should be preferred to that of a mother. By virtue of their common humanity a mother and her unborn baby are both sacred with an equal right to life”.

The Church has rejected suggestions that Catholic teaching led to the tragic death of Savita Halappanavar. Moreover, bioethicists have pointed out that nothing in Catholic medical ethics or current medical practice in Ireland prevents doctors giving a pregnant woman all necessary treatment, even if this results in the unintended death of the unborn child.