A support group for parents who receive poor pre-natal prognoses for their babies (so-called ‘fatal foetal abnormalities’) has criticised a call made by a leading physician at a maternity hospital for abortion to be made available in such circumstances.
In a statement responding to comments on abortion made by Professor Fergal Malone, the new Master of Dublin’s Rotunda Hospital, Audrey Connolly of One Day More said: “It is very disturbing to hear abortion described as part of a health care system that should be available to families who are told that their babies have an illness that is likely to end their lives shortly after birth.”
Arguing instead for proper hospice care, Ms Connolly argued that such provision “would enable families to spend as much time with their babies as possible in a supportive and comforting environment”.
As he assumed his seven-year term as Master on January 1, Prof. Malone outlined his vision for the Rotunda during his tenure to The Examiner newspaper, asserting that while the hospital currently offers non-directive counselling to parents receiving news of a life-threatening abnormality, he preferred a situation where staff are free to offer abortions too.
In its statement, One Day More reiterated its call on the Government to make proper provision for perinatal hospice care nationally, a call echoed by the Irish Medical Organisation.
As well as providing proper end-of-life care for infants diagnosed with a fatal condition, One Day More stressed that “it would also allow care to be given to all of the patients involved, namely the parents, other siblings and the unborn baby who is seriously ill and in need of care”.
